I should be finishing one midterm (due tonight by 5pm) and focusing on another that I haven't started yet (due Thursday) but I thought it might be better to blog about current events in sports before I get back to my responsibilities as a student (to say nothing of my responsibilities as an employee)...
1. Goodbye Theo: Red Sox GM Theo Epstein quit yesterday. If you believe the Boston Herald, it's because Theo was losing a power struggle against Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino. If you believe the Boston Globe (a subsidiary of the company that owns 17% of the team), it's because Theo got too big for his britches and didn't like working under a more experienced, hands-on type of executive like Lucchino. If you believe Peter Gammons (the biggest moron in the history of baseball reporting morons), it's because Theo didn't like being a celebrity and wanted to restore some normalcy to his life. The truth absolutely lies somewhere in between the Herald and the Globe accounts. It's well-documented that Larry Lucchino is baseball's ultimate Machiavellian Prince, a classic double-speaker who stands for nothing and wields a sharp knife so I'm sure Theo was tired of working for such an individual. Whatever the reason, the Red Sox are worse for losing Theo. Not because he's some kind of baseball genius (he isn't) but because the luster of the 2004 season is quickly becoming dull with infighting and roster turnover. I eagerly await The Sports Guy's spin. Having read his book, a paean to the brilliance of the John Henry/Tom Werner/Lucchino/Theo group that delivered a championship, I wonder who's side TSG will take.
2. Cloth Curtain: That's how I choose to mock the Pittsburgh Steelers who nearly lost to one of the worst football teams in the NFL. I know Ben Roethlisberger is hurting more than he might be letting on but there is no excuse for letting a team with no QB, no WR's and an RB who admitted last week that he's not giving 100% nearly beat you at home. I think the Steelers are a decent team, certainly capable of winning a big game like last week's game against the Bengals but to follow it up with a near-stinker when they're 8 1/2 point favorites at home? That's not a convincing Super Bowl contender to me. Heresy as it might be among the Clevelandites around here, I think the Broncos are a better team and they're my pick to make it to the Super Bowl. If I were Cowher, I'd spend less time using steroids (have you seen him recently?) and more time coaching the team on simple things like snapping the ball.
3. Fletch Lives: Fletch said "I hate Tommy Lasorda" and I agree. That fat little man, in the ear of Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, is ruining everything. To quote several sources, old-schoolers like Lasorda and the dimwitted media are so afraid of new-age thinking that they immediately trash what they don't understand. So DePodesta doesn't have the best people-skills. So he didn't play baseball as a kid. Does that mean he doesn't know what he's doing? Moreover, does that mean that Lasorda does? In case those fools at Chavez Ravine hadn't noticed, the team that plays 30 miles due south and OUTSIDE of city limits, is re-branding itself as a team from Los Angeles. And they're doing a good job. Sure we can make fun of the silly LAA of A moniker but there's no denying that with an interested owner, a lot of money, the city's best player (Vlad), the city's best pitcher (Colon) and the city's best closer (FRod -- sorry Gagne, you snooze, you lose), people are forgetting about the Dodgers. The Dodgers are in the quintessential "team with no plan" phase, having fired their manager, then shortly before announcing the final list of managerial candidates, firing their GM. And why? Because the fat little manicotti, threatened by a young man who speaks a different language, told the owner to pull the trigger. Will the Dodgers really be better off with Pat Gillick or another old fart at GM? Look around the game, paisano -- the GM's are getting younger. They're young enough to be your grandson. Now why don't you get out of the team's way before you make it worse, huh?
(Author's note - I'm exhausted and very stressed out so I am not going to proofread this posting. If it's full of typos and run-on sentences, so be it. Better here than in my midterm. I'm so fucked.)
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