Congratulations MJ

I want to be the first on this blog to congratulate our resident sports enthusiastic and rage-a-holic on his wonderful wedding. Hopefully MJ will be getting some much needed R&R on his honeymoon and come back fully charged with his plethora of sports knowledge and sports rage.

Congrats Bro!

Eat $h*t And Die, Reilly

Not that I am particularly enamored of Carmelo Anthony the person or Carmelo Anthony the basketball player and not that I think his acquisition by the Knicks will make them a decidedly better basketball team...

...but I hate these sorts of whiny, populist, anti-free market bullshit articles.

Free agency is here. It's been here for several decades now. If you can't accept that people have a right to choose where they want to earn a paycheck then you should probably not follow sports or move to Thailand where slavery and indentured servitude is apparently still accepted.

We don't have to like the way professional athletes behave and we don't have to condone the methods they use to extricate themselves from situations they don't want to be in but, frankly, anyone that has ever left one job for another has performed some version of the same wiggly dance that Carmelo Anthony just performed.

My message to Rick Reilly is simple: you're a millionaire and you quit Sports Illustrated to work for ESPN. You're a motherfucking phony. Perhaps Sports Illustrated should've put a "franchise tag" on you? The reality is, however, that no one at SI misses you because you sucked.

I Couldn't Agree More

Normally I'd never agree with anything that comes out of the mouth of a member of the White Sox but, in this instance, LHP Mark Buehrle speaks for me.

Mark, I couldn't have said it any better myself.

KG Sucks

Is there anyone left on earth -- besides those who live in Boston -- that likes KG? I should hope that anyone reading this story realizes what kind of a disgusting person KG is.

It's hard to believe that just a few years ago, KG was one of the most popular and fan-friendly players in the league. It must be something about living in Massachusetts...

Finally!

It is incredibly gratifying to me to finally – FINALLY! – see someone perform some sacred cow-tipping and tell it like it is about Eli Manning. Sure, the source is a below-average backup defensive back and sure his one season in New York last year was a complete disaster. But that doesn’t change the verifiable accuracy of what he’s saying.

“You never know what you’re going to get with that guy. You never know if he’s going to come in and make bad decisions; you don’t know if he’s just going to have one of them Peyton Manning games where he lights you up.”

CC Brown has a point. After all, through five games, Manning leads all players (not just QB’s) in turnovers, with an NFL-worst 12 (8 INT/4 FUM). For his career (94 games), Manning has 122 turnovers (96 INT/26 FUM). This is Manning’s seventh season and his sixth as a starter. It is painfully obvious at this point that Manning is not good at protecting the football. How is this even a disputable point?

Manning is a mediocre NFL QB. He’s the very definition of “average” and the personification of mediocrity. His last name affords him the kind of protection from criticism that is otherwise heaped upon turnover-prone QB’s with accuracy and decision-making issues. Although I don’t expect too many more people to stand up and tell the truth, it is somewhat encouraging that at least one person in the NFL can tell us what far too many people refuse to accept. Eli Manning just isn’t that good.

Sometimes A Rose Is Just A Rose...

...and sometimes an emotional rant in the face of bad news is just that and nothing more.

No one should minimize the contributions that Rev. Jesse Jackson has made in speaking up for the victims of tyranny, injustice and racial intolerance. But, when it comes to sports, I’ve found that Jesse Jackson should pick his spots more carefully.

I don’t know where Jackson read veiled racism in Gilbert’s comments but he was way, way off base in my opinion. And, really, should he be casting stones when he’s made his own overtly offensive blunders?

Rev. Jackson: you’re a good man. But STFU once in a while...

Knowledge Is The Key To Enlightenment (Or, Don’t Make Accusations Before You Are Armed With Facts)

There is racism in America. It exists in implicit and explicit forms and it is pervasive across all regions of the country as well as the broad socioeconomic spectrum. There has also been a great deal of progress in combating racism through both legal measures and attitudinal changes. Progress is being made, even if the goal of a color blind society has not yet been achieved.

But I so tire of hearing athletes talk of racism and then offer flimsy examples to support their claims. Most recently, this rubbish came from the mouth of Minnesota Twins second baseman Orlando Hudson. To support the theory that African-American baseball players are the victims of racism in Major League Baseball, Hudson cited the continued unemployment of Jermaine Dye and Gary Sheffield, now a full week into the 2010 season.

While it would be impossible to argue that baseball doesn’t have a racist past –– after all, April 15th commemorates the 63rd anniversary of the day when Jackie Robinson ended baseball’s 71-year segregated history –– it is simply no longer the case. Baseball is now a meritocracy where teams are most interested in paying enormous sums of money to the most qualified individuals in order to turn a sport into a profit-making endeavor. Why would financially-motivated owners deprive themselves of earning every last penny by hiring substandard talent that wouldn’t help teams win or draw paying customers to watch?

Gary Sheffield may be a unique case. Baseball has certainly blackballed its own outspoken members before and Sheffield is certainly outspoken (to put it mildly). But even in ostracism, baseball has been an equal-opportunity offender, as pitcher-turned-author Jim Bouton can attest.

Perhaps, then, Hudson should be asked to look at the players he uses as his case study. In case he hadn’t noticed, MLB general managers have become far more judicious in their allocation of resources and baseball has seen a trend of teams going younger, cheaper and more athletic whenever possible. In other words, the days of simply signing veteran hitters to multi-million dollar contracts are over. Furthermore, as defensive metrics become more and more commonly-accepted around baseball, teams are valuing a player’s defensive capabilities in the overall equation. There will always be 14 openings in the American League for designated hitters but, even there, teams are opting to either go with a primary DH for his slugging capabilities or using that spot in the lineup to cycle players in order to give everyone a day off from fielding duty.

So, then, let’s examine the most recent statistical data on Sheffield and Dye. Using traditional metrics (AVG/OBP/SLG), sabermetrics (OPS+/wOBA/WAR) and defensive metrics (UZR/150), I will attempt to illustrate why Hudson’s point is entirely without merit.

Gary Sheffield (2007-2009):

Traditional: .253/.358/.437
Saber: 108/.351/1.1
Defense: inconclusive*

Jermaine Dye (2007-2009):

Traditional: .267/.334/.496
Saber: 112/.354/0.33
Defense: -22.46

Since the decision to offer contracts to players ultimately come down to finances, one must look at how a player’s output directly correlates to wins. Thus, according to WAR, Sheffield was worth only one win above a replacement player over the previous three seasons, and was worth only half a win over a replacement player over 2008-2009. In other words, for the money it would cost to pay Sheffield (let’s assume he would accept no less than twice the MLB minimum salary of $400,000, or $800,000) a team would do just as well signing a player for the minimum salary and receiving exactly the minimum level of output.

For Dye, the situation is even direr. Over a three-year period, Dye was worth only one-third of a win and, in fact, was worth less than a win in 2007 and 2009. Despite his offensive output –– slightly better than league average, according to wOBA and OPS+ –– his defensive decline was so steep that it actually cut into his offensive value. As such, the Chicago White Sox would have actually been better off playing a replacement player over Dye given how Dye cut into the team’s win chances in those two seasons. It was reported that the Nationals, Cubs and Brewers were interested in signing Dye this offseason but that he balked at signing contracts worth less than $3M. Given this data, Dye should be lucky to even be offered the minimum salary, given how he brings absolutely nothing to the table.

Racism exists in all walks of life and it might even exist in baseball’s front offices. But on the playing field, I just don’t see it. It would behoove Orlando Hudson and other players who share his opinion to educate themselves on baseball statistics because these tools play a determining factor in how much they are entitled to earn.

*The three-year defensive data for Sheffield is inconclusive because Sheffield was a DH for 2007 and 2008 and thus did not log enough innings in the field for data to be reliable. For 2009, Sheffield played 502 defensive innings and registered -31.0, third-worst in baseball among all players that played at least 500 defensive innings in the outfield. Incidentally, Dye was eighth-worst among all outfielders that played at least 500 defensive innings in 2009 and fourth-worst among all outfielders that played at least 1100 defensive innings in 2007 and 2008.

Breaking News: Snot-Nosed Know-It-All Gets Fucked In Own Ass By Wildly Wrong Prediction

The heartiest, most deeply-felt and emphatic “FUCK YOU!” goes to Matt Taibbi for penning this article back in April. In it, he spouts out lies, half-truths, common misconceptions, pedantic arguments, tired clichés and ad hominem attacks. None of that bothers me, given the fact that, as I’ve learned in writing online on a semi-regularly basis, every author is prone to these kinds of rants.

The danger, of course, is being proven wrong and having your words spoon-fed back to you through a feeding tube, presumably because someone punched you in your arrogant, dirty, cock-sucking mouth.

Eat up Matty, while the food’s still hot.

The Jordan Rules Are Not Hereditary

Who the hell do you think you are, Marcus Jordan? You’re the son of a famous basketball player and the son of a man that launched the most famous brand of athletic shoe in history. Your privileged upbringing came as a result of your father’s unique genetics and supreme gifts as a professional athlete. You yourself are nobody special. You yourself are not important enough to jeopardize your university’s $3 million sneaker contract.

These kind of self-righteous, hostage-holding situations drive me crazy. Unless your daddy wants to spend the $3M to buy the school out of the contract, wear your goddamned Adidas and shut the fuck up. You don’t matter.

NFL Hypocrisy

People criticize baseball’s “unwritten rules” and, to an extent, I can understand the criticism and acknowledge that a portion of that critique is valid. What I find amusing annoying as shit is how football has its own set of unwritten rules yet is never criticized. Just as with the steroids issue, the NFL manages to skate by with nary a peep of condemnation or chastisement.

This column is borne out of this story about the Jets who might be in trouble with the NFL for not listing Brett Favre on their injury report for the final five games of last season. As is well documented at this point, Favre had torn tendons in his throwing arm near the end of the ’08 season.

Apparently, because he did not receive daily treatment and there was no talk of him missing any starts, the Jets decided that there was no point to listing Favre on the weekly injury report. This line of reasoning makes sense to me but the NFL sees it otherwise. According to the league, the Jets should’ve listed Favre because they knew he had an injury that could affect his performance, even if his presence on the injury list had him labeled as “probable.”

Contrast the Jets’ apparent injury list faux-pas with the Patriots’ well-known act of gamesmanship, where they list nearly one-third of their active roster on the injury report, irrespective of those players’ conditions or likelihood of playing in games. In their adherence to the letter of the law (but clearly not the spirit of it), the Patriots manage to water down the value of the injury list to the point that no observer can actually look at New England’s list of players and assign it any value.

As we all know, the entire discussion of the injury list revolves around that “unwritten rule” in football called gambling. As much as the NFL pretends that it doesn’t cater to the legal bookmakers in Las Vegas (or the illegal ones found in the backs of pubs and betting parlors), there is no question that the NFL derives an ancillary level of revenue from the actions of those who participate in sports betting.

Most recently, the NFL fought a measure by Delaware which would’ve legalized parlay bets on NFL games in that state. Due to its incredible financial might and its connections with the federal government, the NFL was able to slow down Delaware’s betting initiative.

I find the NFL’s hypocrisy both insulting and infuriating. If you truly don’t want to be associated with sports betting then cut the charade with the injury list. The Patriots already make a mockery of it and yet are above reproach. But when the Jets use a degree of thoughtfulness and honesty with the injury list, they are “under investigation.” This isn’t a plea to stop the seeming persecution of the Jets to the benefit of their tormentors the Patriots. This is a plea for the NFL to get off its high horse and just admit that gambling and the injury list are part of it’s “unwritten rules.”

Cheers and Jeers: A Little Dick’ll Do Edition

2 oz. George Dickel® Tennessee whiskey
3-5 splashes citrus soda

Since Mighty – actually his official name is now Dr. Mighty – is on hiatus, I figured I’d pick up the slack for him and post a Cheers and Jeers. Hopefully it’s something our favorite physician political scientist would be proud of. In honor of the title, this week I’ll be celebrating notable sports dicks...

Jeers: To John Calipari for screwing over yet another NCAA program. Just like at UMASS, the Memphis Tigers will now have to vacate their season records and their Final Four appearance. Only a dick like John Calipari could become the first coach in NCAA history to have two schools he coached vacate their Final Four appearances.

Cheers: To Stephen Strasburg for being a big swinging dick. He is now not only a badass for throwing 101mph but he’s now the wealthiest rookie in baseball history. Life is pretty good right now if you’re Mr. Strasburg. All he needs now is a catchy nickname like “The Rocket”, “The Big Unit” or “The Ryan Express.”

Jeers: To Tim Tebow. Why? Not for anything he did, per se, but merely for being such a pansy. And since the topic of this week’s C&J is “dicks”, there’s no doubt in my mind that Tebow has eaten his fair share of them. I give Timmay credit though; at least he’s comfortable being a homoerotic pinup boy.

Happy Friday everybody!

For The Good Of The Game: Honor Your Agreement

I generally have no tolerance for opinionated old codgers that played baseball in an era I’ll sarcastically refer to as “yesteryear”. I question their motivation every time they talk about the steroids issue and what they’d suggest as a solution.

This time, it’s Hank Aaron doing the talking. While I agree completely that Pete Rose should be reinstated and made eligible for the Hall of Fame (but not eligible for a job in baseball as a coach or manager), I think releasing the list of names is irresponsible and illegal.

The Major League Baseball Players Association agreed to the 2003 survey drug testing on the grounds that any and all test results would remain confidential. It is unfortunate that leaks have exposed Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz and a handful of other, less prominent players but there’s nothing that can be done to remedy that situation. However, just because 5% of the list has been leaked, it doesn’t mean that the remaining 95% of the players appearing on that list should have their rights trampled under the pretense that this will be “for the good of the game.”

The game of baseball has survived many other trials and tribulations and seems to be surviving the tremors and aftershocks of the so-called “Steroids Era” just fine. The game doesn’t need to violate an agreement between the union and management to save itself. The game – meaning, in this case, baseball’s management – should respect its agreement with the MLBPA in the same manner that it would expect the MLBPA to respect its agreement with management.

The list was supposed to be confidential. One or more individuals seem to be taking pleasure (and perhaps accepting payment or other quid pro quo favors) in exposing the 103 names on the 2003 survey one by one. This is not only wrong, it is also illegal. Instead of state and federal monies being spent on hearings and trials on individuals like Barry Bonds, Miguel Tejada and Roger Clemens, our state and federal government should go after those individuals that are leaking the names. Last I checked, it was not illegal to use steroids but it was most certainly illegal to leak grand jury testimony or evidence that was seized in a federal raid.

Enough is enough. I sincerely hope that Bud Selig, in his infinite foolishness, does not decide to name the remaining 98 or so names. That would be a flagrant breach of trust (not to mention a signed contract) and would be unforgivable.

The Entire Universe Wishes To Apologize To Tim Tebow For Hurting His Feelings

Really briefly, because it's 8:45 on a Saturday and I just woke up and turned on SportsCenter...

Why is it a big deal that Tim Tebow wasn't a unanimous all-SEC selection? While I agree that he's the best QB in the conference, I don't see why this story is such a big deal or why Ole Ball Coach Spurrier feels the need to apologize on behalf of his program for being the lone SEC team to not vote for Tebow. Is it the biggest crime in the world that Tebow didn't get all the ballots? Is he going to cry?

Fuck that. Was I sleeping when Congress passed a law that said that Tebow must get his ass kissed and his dick sucked at the same time?

Tebow - go fuck yourself.

Peter Gammons: Moron

Its been ages since I ripped on Peter Gammons so I may as well break the dry spell by sharing a direct quote from Mr. Gammons on this morning’s “Mike & Mike In The Morning” show:

“The White Sox have become a national team. They’re as national as any team other than the Yankees, Red Sox and Cubs.”

What? What does that even mean? First of all, the White Sox are absolutely not a national team. How do I know? Here in New York, no one thinks about the White Sox, nobody cares about the White Sox and nobody talks about the White Sox. If they’re not talked about in New York then, by definition, they’re not a national team.

Secondly, Gammons’s sentence doesn’t even make sense. He’s creating degrees of “national-ness”, with the Yanks/Red Sox/Cubs as the most national and then placing the White Sox right below them. But what other teams are “as national” as the White Sox, other than the aforementioned three? What the hell is this idiot talking about?

The only reason the White Sox get any national attention is because their manager is one of the most bigoted and self-involved figures in all of professional sports. Beyond the negative attention that Ozzie Guillen attracts to the team, nobody pays attention to the other baseball team from Chicago.

Dwight Howard: Idiot

God, you have no idea how much I can’t stand bullshit like this. Look, I understand that players have to say what we (the adoring public) want to hear. I understand that athletes’ contract negotiations play out in public and that there’s a public relations strategy that goes along with that. But after 30+ years of free agency we’re all at the point where we’re smart enough to know better and we’re experienced enough to be able to cut through the bullshit. We don’t need to be spoken to like we’re idiotic children.

Dwight Howard will not make any decisions about his future based on what Orland Magic fans want. He won’t decide to stay or go based on any “love” he feels in “the community.” He will base his decision on the financial parameters of the contract he is offered and that’s that. That’s true of every athlete, incidentally.

I’m not one that begrudges an athlete his financial reward. Hell, I’m not even the type that gets offended if an athlete transparently makes a money grab. It’s a business and these guys have every right to earn a living. I know I’d go after every dollar I could get so I don’t have a problem with them doing the same thing.

Be honest, Dwight. Tell the people that you want to stay in Orlando as long as the franchise shows you the appropriate level of commitment.

Incidentally, why is Howard even talking about the future when he has three years left on his current contract without the benefit of an opt-out clause? If saying “it’s not about the money” is your PR strategy, why would you be talking about your impending free agency this far in advance? You only talk about money and contracts this far in advance if you want more money. The people of Orlando weren’t thinking about Howard’s free agency at all…until this very moment. That’s as bad a PR strategy as I’ve ever seen.

News Flash: Member Of Red Sox Has High Opinion Of Himself!

Today is Opening Day 2009 and I haven’t done any season preview write-ups. I haven’t written a digest of this past winter’s free agency and trade market. I haven’t even given you my picks for the ’09 season. But what I will do for you is tell you why Dustin Pedroia – the reigning AL MVP – is a self-centered little jerk. Why will I do this for you? Because I’m a swell guy, that’s why.

Straight from the pages of Boston Magazine, here’s a featured article on the pompous little dick.

Now, if you read it all the way through, you’ll see where he calls A-Rod “a dork” and then tries to retract the statement. I didn’t really take exception to that because, at this point, I’ve accepted that A-Rod is not well-liked for some mysterious and very unfair reason. What I took exception to was the following excerpt:

“Woodland is a bedroom community of more than 50,000 people that lies 20 miles northwest of Sacramento...“It’s a dump,” says Pedroia...“You can quote me on that. I don’t give a shit.” Pedroia acknowledges he’s angry with the town for something he won’t specify...“The place sucks. The newspaper there, I don’t really get along with. I come from your town. You should embrace me. I play for the Boston Red Sox.”

Are you kidding me? I come from your town. You should embrace me. Could you BE more full of yourself? Eat shit and die, Dustin.

A Rant That MJ Might be Proud Of

Ok first off I want to give a disclaimer to this rant. I am neither a Yankees or Bosox fan. I like neither of the teams and feel that they spend too much money trying to acheive superior status and they could be throwing the money where it is actually deserved. I feel that the front offices of both the Yankees and Red Sox resemble the Jackson Pollackesque explosion that comes out of my colon after a night of spicy Thai food.

I am a Reds fan through and through and wish that Pete Rose would run for the governor of Colorado so that he would allow sports betting in the casinos here.

Back to the rant...I just read an article by Jayson Stark that is once again Red Sox bias and makes absolutely no logical sense. Which is very common for the people at ESPN.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2009/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3967746

He discusses how the Bosox did a better job in the offseason by not spending 423 million dollars on a variety of players but spent far less money on "veteran" players who have spent alot of time on the DL but have alot of experience.

First case in point is Takashi Saito. He has a partially torn ligament in his throwing arm but did not decide to get Tommy John surgery. Stark seems to think that Saito will get back to the way he pitched in his prime...um the dude has a torn ligament in his throwing arm. One of two things will happen, he will pitch in pain all season and suck it up, or he will totally tear the ligament and be gone within the first couple of months. There is no way that a guy with a partially torn ligament can bounce back to his best. That is like saying that Christopher Reeve was going to be in charge of the Justice League right after his accident on the horse.

Second case that he brings up is John Smoltz. Now I have to admit that I am a huge fan of Smoltzy. He is an incredible competitor and a HOF pitcher. He is also going to be 42 years old and he just had shoulder surgery that I had hard time coming back from at the age of 28. Even without the fact that he had shoulder surgery, he is still in the twilight of his career. Stark uses his postseason record to give credence to what an amazing rotation the Bosox now have. Smoltz has been awesome in the postseason but the 12 of his 15 wins were 10 years ago before he has his first Tommy John surgery. His last win was in 2005 which was 4 years ago. The funny thing is that Stark uses the fact that Andy Petitte has not won a game in 4 years as a negative but doesn't seem to mention it about Smoltz.

Third point. Rocco Baldelli. He has some weird ailment that has baffled even the med students at Wash U and is weirder than the "parasite" that Jason Giambi had a couple of years ago. Stark is giving us the impression that Baldelli will bounce back and be a good backup to JD Drew. Now JD Drew is another one of those commonly injured players ala Ken Griffey Jr. Drew has averaged 110 games started over his career. So should we assume that a really injured will be a good back up for another really injured player.

This is one of the most fecking myopic illogical biased article that I have seen. How can a "journalist" use an argument against a player that he uses for another player. It just baffles me. I knew that ESPN (Simmons, Gammons, et al) were butt buddies with the Red Sox but this is pretty crazy.

Shoddy Sportswriting Is Contagious

Proving that ESPN does not hold supremacy over disingenuous sports reporting or specious logic, SI.com provided this article today which essentially demonstrates two things: first, that this outrageous piece of garbage is further evidence that the entire sports media universe has gone gaga over the Red Sox in the most transparent way and second, that those like ourselves here at BSD who rail against the mainstream sports media might actually be winning the battle (seriously, check the comments on that article. More than a few folks point out its stupidity).

The reason this article is so offensive is simple: it completely neglects the fact that the Red Sox actually made an offer to Mark Teixeira (as this link clearly demonstrates). Don’t tell me the Red Sox are the best-run team in baseball because they prefer to re-sign their young players instead of spending in free agency. If you want to make the case that the Red Sox are indeed the best-run team in baseball I have no problem with that. But it’s not because they eschew free agents. Give me a break. It’s common knowledge that the Red Sox made a tremendous push to get Teixeira and lost him at the last moment.

I hate it when reporters conveniently omit facts in order to make an argument. If you can’t write a story without obscuring relevant details then you probably shouldn’t be writing for a living. Incidentally, the author of this steaming turd (Dave Heuschkel) was an employee of the Hartford Courant (until he was recently laid off as a part of Tribune Company’s reorganization and bankruptcy). His job at the Courant was as a beat writer for the Boston Red Sox. As the Church Lady would say, “well isn’t that convenient?”

It's Never Bud's Fault

In yet another staggering example of spineless self-absolution (no doubt a means to preserve his $17M salary), the grand poobah of Major League Baseball is telling everyone that he’s not to blame for the so-called “steroids era” in the game.

What ever happened to the notion that true leadership came with a “buck stops here” mentality? Instead of simply taking responsibility for the complexion of the game during his tenure as commissioner, Selig prefers to blame everyone else. That’s exactly the kind of behavior that we’ve come to expect from the used car dealer from Milwaukee.

Bud Selig lacks even one iota of any endearing or sympathetic characteristics. He is a completely indecent, dishonorable, self-interested and corrupt individual and he commands no respect whatsoever. Although I don’t advocate Congressional encroachment onto MLB turf, I would welcome an exhaustive investigation of Selig’s practices with the sole motivation being a potential trap for future perjury charges against him. I’ve never known someone who deserves it more than he does.

I Couldn't Have Said It Any Better...

In honor of the upcoming baseball season, I would like to reiterate my intense dislike for the commissioner of Major League Baseball, Allan H. “Bud” Selig. Few enterprises in world history have been run as ineptly as Selig has run baseball and yet remarkably, in spite of him, the sport continues to thrive under his so-called leadership. It’s a testament to the intense loyalty of baseball fans that we haven’t collectively said “enough is enough.”

In any case, Maury Brown wrote a brilliant open letter to Commissioner Selig. This letter beats the same drum I’ve been banging on for years but it bears repeating because the crimes Selig has committed are so egregious that it’s a wonder the United States Congress hasn’t called him in for a mock-execution style grilling, they way they’re so fond of doing.