A few Random thoughts

A few random thoughts about sports to think about.

So let me get this straight, we’re still shocked by players testing positive? I love how the Manny Ramirez PED scandal took up ESPN’s entire afternoon broadcast as if he was this sympathetic figure.
None of these guys are. They are all under suspicion and rightfully so. None of them deserve the benefit of the doubt no matter how invested you are in them. Nowadays it only pays to be loyal to a team more than an individual. Why have only hate for one player when you can reserve that for an entire organization?
Its funny back in the day when people used to wonder why San Francisco fans blindly sided with Barry Bonds and cheered him on. I guess we’re all going to eventually be taking a page out of their book.

What’s funny though about the Manny Ramirez situation is, we all thought that Manny didn’t care about anything. At least we know he’s in touch with his feminine side.

Somebody please explain to me whether the stars of the playoffs are supposed to be the players or the referees because I’m having a hard time figuring it out. They’ve blown several calls, and not just on the court.
A. The Ron Artest/Kobe situation I can’t really fault the refs. However, if you’re the NBA and you’re reviewing all the plays and the next day everyone’s expecting some sort of response and the referees hold this unbelievable bias against Ron Artest where he gets immediately ejected thanks to his reputation more than anything he does, and you see in multiple replays that Kobe clearly threw an elbow close to the neck area of Artest, why are you NOT assessing a one game suspension on Kobe? Because the rules depend on who its being called against.
B. How Rajon Rondo is NOT ejected after that blatant slap right across the face of Brad Miller as he’s going in for what seemed like an uncontested lay up was a joke. But the worst part of it is, that once again, after the help of multiple video replays of the foul, how you won’t possibly give him a one game suspension for that either? You can’t possibly use the excuse that he’s a superstar yet worthy of those princely calls. Just a technical.
C. But of course that wasn’t enough for Rondo. He got away with another one when he hip tossed Kirk Hinrich to the boards. Rondo was having the series of his career up to that point averaging a triple double but he gave the NBA two reasons in consecutive games to warrant a one game suspension and nothing happened. Just a technical.


But even when the refs don’t blow the whistle, they blow it. We’re of course
referring to the no-call on the Antoine Wright intentional foul on Carmello Anthony. However I have to agree with the no-call in this instance. My understanding is that teams usually voice their intent prior to the play especially in a close game so there will be no reason for interpretation. Listen ref, we’re going to foul because we have a foul to give. Never was said instructions given. Also, let’s get off the fact that Wright didn’t wrap him up, so that the ref who was facing Carmello’s back (the foul happened in his front) and looking at Melo’s feet since he was close to going out of bounds , why on earth would you hack a guy and then throw your hands up like you didn’t mean to do it? If you were a Wright apologist you would say that it was a reactionary move. Everyone who swipes at the ball and ends up hacking immediately throws their hand up to indicate that they shouldn’t be whistled for the foul. Also what’s up with the late reaction on Wright’s part? It was like the situation was so big that he got caught up in it and he forgot that it was he who meant to foul yet no foul was called. Fate added the final twist of the knife by Melo swishing the three.

But you see, this is what the playoff refereeing has done. They have made players afraid of the uneven calling because David Stern has apparently sent the league’s referees into DefCom 3 level warning about the physical play not getting out of hand. Can Antoine Wright be blamed for not hacking harder? Can you blame anyone anytime a player goes to the rim and gets fouled that a shot goes in? It used to be that if a player drove to the hoop, and you were fouling you made sure the player went down and there was NO way that shot was going in. Nowadays you do that at your own peril. I feel like the refs play off the crowd’s reaction in assessing whether it’s a flagrant or not. How many times in these playoffs have refs made a foul call, then taken two or three minutes to deliberate and then upped the ante and called it a flagrant? Its beyond ridiculous and it destroys the flow of a game and creates easy baskets when playoff basketball should be more physical should be more intense and a few people should be shoving and getting in each other’s face.
I’m not asking for complete anarchy on the court, but this babying kind of officiating one night and UFC rules the next is kind of wacky and nonsensical. I love physical play and that’s what it was in the 90’s but for some reason I felt like the officiating was much better because you had uniformity in the calls and how the flow of the game went back then.

Speaking of NBA playoff malfunction, I think Mark Cuban went a bit far when he told Kenyon Martin’s mom what he thought of him. Kenyon of course not one to back down, said he will “personally take care of it.” Mark Cuban wrote an apology on his blog and also offered to have Kenyon’s mom and his friends at a suite for the playoff game when it comes back to Dallas. Err? Comes back to Dallas? This series is going to be over at Game 5.

I’m a fan of Twitter since I like hearing the sound of my own voice but the best tweet (which they need to find a different wording for because it sounds very lame), had to come from Sportscenter Twitter when someone basically wrote that MJ/Kobe comparisons need to stop because MJ would have ended the series once Yao went down and would have never let the Rockets tie it up. So true. So true.

Joel Sherman wrote it write: exactly what did Johan Santana do to his Mets teammates that they refuse to offer up any run support? Can someone please explain to me how this guy has given up as many earned runs as unearned runs and has an ERA of 0.78 and has a record of 4-2? Its unfortunate that the Mets can’t field their regular everyday line up everytime Johan pitches because the guys usually take a day off whenever the ace is on the mound.

Speaking of ace, is there a better story in MLB than Zach Greinke? The future at age 20. Gone at 22 thanks to an anxiety disorder. Back at 25 and now dominant ace. The only person who’s having panic attacks are the guys at the plate.

Back to the Mets, can someone please tell me if we have such an improved bullpen, why we continue to overly rely on Pedro Feliciano? Classic overmanaging last night on Jerry Manuel’s part. If you have designated Pedro Feliciano as your left handed specialist? Then use him ONLY for lefties. Common sense tells you that. Instead, you let the game get out of hand by leaving him in for two batters too many. I saw similar tendencies last season and I’m not too crazy about it. Bobby Parnell should have been left in there for the entire inning and was not. In those situations, you need your best relievers in there if you’re going to protect a 1-1 game. Understanding the ebbs and flows of a game are what differentiate good managers from bad ones. When you saw that ball misplayed by Reyes to keep the inning alive, you had to give Feliciano the hook no matter what. Either way, if I were the manager, I would never have taken Parnell out of the game.

Something tells me (ok the schedule does) that the Yankees are going to go on a little bit of a roll.

Anybody else tired of hearing about Brett Fa….wait. No, he won’t get me talking about him.

Something tells me that the Giants are not completely out of the Anquan Boldin sweepstakes. Jerry Reese has left the door open to possible trades and Drew Rosenhaus recently guarantweeted (guaranteed via a tweet) that Anquan would be dealt prior training camp. Guys like Rosenhaus and Boras don’t make outrageous claims without having some sort of assurance in his back pocket that a team is out there that won’t make a trade for him. Right now, Rosenhaus by making public demands for his client’s trade, are trying to force Arizona’s hand and Zona has yet to wilt to football’s Boras.

I think that I have the perfect idea for football. Since we’re heading to a labor strike with the current labor agreement expiring after next year I think the NFL’s player union has to give up some stake of that TV money they are getting so that they can have guaranteed contracts. If I’m not mistaken, the split right now is 60/40 with the players getting the 60. You make it 45/40 players and the other 15 percent going to a big pool for pensions. Football’s pensions are a joke and it being the most physical of all the sports makes it a crime. Football is basically the only sport making money at this point and thus can afford to be fair in these negotiations. Unfortunately this deal would never pass because A. its too fair and B. unless a deal for a salary cap is negotiated before the expiration date of the previous labor agreement, the players union head has promised he will not be willing to negotiate friendly after that. So the owners have until sometime at the end of the year to fix it. Hopefully everyone can get their act together and figure out an amenable way to split 1 trillion dollars while the rest of the world’s economy is in the toilet.

Speaking of the economy, in Bill Simmons’ recent podcast with Darryl Morey, the Houston Rockets GM, it was noted that sports contract discussions usually follow suit with other sports and so you would see certain NBA veterans get the lowball offers much like baseball players did this offseason. Below market offers for guys like Orlando Hudson and Manny Ramirez got them eventually landing in Los Angeles. Interesting to see how guys like Ron Artest will take the bear market and see where he ends up.

The Nuggets, everyone’s afterthought, seemingly came alive thanks to one brilliant move of common sense. Knowing his team needed a leader to follow, he sought out a hometown kid who had lead a team to a title, and also at the same time in a fairly reasonable contract given how well he’s performing and allowing his team at the same time stay under the cap and release a declining Allen Iverson who never had the motivation to be a leader though he’s considered (by default thanks to his years in the league) to be a veteran presence on a team that had a lot of talented athletes.
Is it that simple that with one brilliant stroke of common sense, that the Nuggets are past the first round for the first time since the 80’s and looking like legitimate contenders to knocking the Lakers off their at one time seemingly easy path to an NBA Finals match up with Lebron James?

Actually, if the Lakers look vulnerable to a Rockets team missing Yao Ming AND Tracy McGrady (though the latter being gone probably helps the Rockets anyway), I don’t see why they should even be thought of as favorites. Anybody who thought that they would be playing tougher with Bynum is flat out wrong. At this rate, if they get to the Finals, Cleveland in 4.

Which of course is going to happen right? Cleveland is looking like a freight train that can’t be stopped. Jordan treatment for LeBron, Mo Williams and Delonte West knocking down threes and excellent team defense, it’s a pretty easy formula for success.

Country’s in a poor condition economically. People are losing their jobs. Our dollar is losing value. The working class is losing faith in the government. There are commercials popping up now with two agents racing into someone’s house and giving them answers to their questions. Of course it’s a commercial for the KGB. Are we turning into early 20th century Russia? At least our president hasn’t be accused of being a Socialist. Wait. Uh oh.