D-Fence

Living in the greater Washington, DC area I am hearing a lot about how this weekend is going to be telling for the Patriots. I remember a couple of weeks ago a lot of people talked about how the Cowboys were their first real test. The Dallas D was not up to the task.

All the people saying this is going to be a tough game for the Patriots point to the Redskins 5th ranked defense as to why. Sports writer Kevin Blackistone said Washington is, "the best defense they will be facing all year."

What none of these people are doing is looking at who Washington has done this against -

Miami (0-7) - 15th in yardage (333.1 ypg), 12th in scoring (22.3 ppg)

Philadelphia (2-4) - 8th in yardage (349.3 ypg), 21st in scoring (19.3 ppg)

NY Giants (5-2) - 9th in yardage (347.7 ypg), T-6th in scoring (26.7 ppg), (beat Washington 24-17)

Detroit (4-2) - 16th in yardage (328.5 ypg), 10th in scoring (23.3. ppg)

Green Bay (5-1) - 11th in yardage (339.3 ypg), 9th in scoring (23.7 ppg) (beat Washington 17-14)

Arizona (3-4) - 12th in yardage (337.0 ypg), T-14th in scoring (21.0 ppg)

Currently the Patriots are first in both categories with 432.9 ypg and 39.9 ppg. The 'Skins haven't faced a team like this yet. They haven't face receivers, an O-line, or a quarterback playing on this level yet.

The only winning team that the 'Skins managed to beat? Detroit, whom I still don't buy as legit. The two teams that beat them still came within a score of their average ppg. The teams they have beat each have major problems - the Eagles barely have a passing game, Miami barely has wideouts and is pitiful on defense, not to mention issues at quarterback. And of course Arizona has its own images at quarterback.

The Patriots have none of those issues.

Let the games begin.

Don't go into stand-up

Miami Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder either thinks he was being funny, or he's just a moron.

During the week preceding the 'Phins game in London, Crowder claimed that he had no idea the people in London spoke English and then had the following to say to the Palm Beach Post -

“I couldn’t find London on a map if they didn’t have the names of the countries,” Crowder said. “I swear to God. I don’t know what nothing is. I know Italy looks like a boot. I learned that.
“I know (Washington Redskins linebacker) London Fletcher. We did a football camp together. So I know him. That’s the closest thing I know to London. He’s black, so I’m sure he’s not from London. I’m sure that’s a coincidental name.”

If he was purposely being obtuse because he thought it would be funny...well, then he's still a moron.

In high school in Georgia, Crowder carried a 3.5 grade point average and was a member of the National Honor Society with that GPA. Of course he carried that GPA in a state recently ranked 41st out of 50 in educational rankings. Crowder is not listed for any academic excellence for his time at Florida, a school not exactly known for its academics.

He is, however, listed for several mind-bogglingly stupid run-ins with the law while in college - assault, fighting with the police, vandalism.

If this is willful ignorance, or a joke, then Crowder should be admonished for perpetuating a damaging stereotype.

If he was being serious, then his high school needs to be taken to task for padding his grades.

Other than a high Wonderlic (which tests football intelligence), this guy hasn't demonstrated two brain-cells firing at the same time since college. And considering what he has demonstrated since high school, one has to wonder about the quality of education he received there.

Joke or not, right now there are a lot of people who should be embarrassed - Crowder being the first and foremost among them. His father, a former 'Phins player and former assistant coach at Penn State, every teacher he has ever had, and even his mother.

If he's doing it because he feels that being smart or demonstrating knowledge diminishes him in the eyes of the kids he hung with in Atlanta, then that's just sad.

Idiot.

The Schill is gone, baby...

or
My Life With the Thrill Schill Cult...

We have very likely witnessed Curt Schilling pitching his last game as a member of the Red Sox.

Sure, we could see him again in this series, but with the way things are going, I think it's unlikely. If Matsuzaka wins tomorrow, I wouldn't be surprised to see Beckett going in game four in order to shut the door.

If it was Schilling's last game, it was a four year run for the Sox that rivals that of any Boston home-grown product in recent history (for those who forgot, Schilling did come up through the Red Sox minor league system). The man is 6-1 with one no decision in the post-season for the Red Sox with the only loss coming against the Yankees in his first start of the bloody-sock series.

He has been clutch in the post season for Boston, more so than any Sox ace in recent memory (although Josh Beckett is pretty much right there with him after this post season). He sacrificed his body for the team, at the time, possibly his career for a ring, in order to bring the World Series trophy to Boston for the first time in 86 years.

He stuck it to the Yankees in a bloody sock and on a bad ankle.

The 40-year old Schilling will always be remembered fondly in Boston for being instrumental in breaking the World Series drought for the Hub of the Universe and Red Sox Nation. But it is time to cut ties. Schilling more often than not looked old during the regular season, and the Sox have young pitchers waiting in the wings like Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz.

It is time to move on.

Thank you, Curt. You've taken us on a helluva ride.

Georgia on my mind...

The Georgia State Supreme Court this morning ordered Genarlow Wilson freed, upholding a ruling by a Monroe County judge's finding that the 10-year sentence constituted "cruel and unusual punishment." In the 4-3 ruling, the court released the opinion that the intention of the law was misapplied in the Wilson case which was to prosecute those who preyed on children, not to moderate sexual activity between consenting minors.

It's about time they got that right.

Capital punishment...

Living in the greater DC area I have heard sports talk show hosts talk about how tough the Redskins defense is. At least two defenders have indirectly said they would win because the Patriots have yet to face anyone like them. My ten cents? I have no doubt the Patriots will win. My only question is whether or not DC can keep it close. I give their defense a shot at holding the Patriots below 30. However, I don't think that the 'Skins have enough offense to seal the deal against a team like the Pats.

The 'Skins are one of only two teams in the league that has not a single touchdown among the receiver corps. That's not going to get it done.

Rocked

The first game of the World Series decisively went the way of the Red Sox in a 13-1 thrashing of the hottest team in baseball.

Terry Francona, evidently is given to understatement. "I thought the whole night we did a good job taking what [they] gave us, laying off pitches out of the zone," said the Boston manager. A good job? Every Boston starter with the exception of Mike Lowell had at least one RBI, and Lowell still doubled, walked twice and scored a run. Every Boston starter with the exception of Jacoby Ellsbury had a hit, and he still had a run scored and a RBI.

Rockies manager Clint Hurdle in his post game comments said that the Rockies are, "a no excuse ball club." Were I a fan of the C-Rocks, I would be thinking this morning that there was no excuse for that performance last night.

From the first inning until the Rockies pitching put up donuts from the sixth inning on, Colorado held the Sox scoreless in only the third inning and of the innings in which the Sox scored, only the second wasn't a multi-run inning.

A lot has been written recently about how good the Rockies pitching was this year. Several pundits said that the Rockies led the National League in ERA. As a matter of fact, ESPN's Jason Stark gives the Rockies an advantage both at the plate and in the rotation for the series.

From what I have been able to find, they were eighth out of 16 National League clubs in ERA with a 4.32 team ERA. Their hitters, however, led the NL with a .280 batting average in what is generally considered the MLB JV.

The Sox, on the other hand, led the AL with a 3.87 team ERA, and were fifth in the AL with a .279 batting average. Overall, the Red Sox had the second best pitching in the majors.

Stark even pointed out that the Rockies had more players in their lineup with more than 80 RBI's than the Sox. He didn't, however, point out that the Sox were fourth in the majors in RBI production with 829. The Rockies were fifth with 823...once again, playing in the inferior NL.

With the possibility of their mojo having been broken, even shattered last night, the Rockies might have a tough uphill fight to bring the first World Series trophy back to Colorado. I'm not saying it can't happen, but it's looking like the Red Sox are going to have the same sort of series against the Rockies they had against the Cardinals.

Sorry, Mr. Helton, maybe if the trade had worked out...

The sporting gods love irony....

Consider the following in the NFL -

The following head coaches, former offensive coordinators, were hired for their offensive acumen. These men were supposed to bring the "O" to teams that already had the defense in place -

Brian Billick, Ravens - offensive coordinator of the record setting Minnesota offense that featured Chris Carter and Randy Moss at wide receiver. Currently the 24th overall offense and head coach of team that at no time under his tenure was a top 16 offense.

Scott Linehan, Rams - Former offensive coordinator of the Vikings and Dolphins is head coach of the dead last offense in the league right now.

John Gruden, Buccaneers - The former Eagles offensive coordinator is presiding over a team that's 26th overall.

Sean Payton, Saints - This former Giants offensive coordinator currently has the 27th ranked offense.

Mike Shanahan, Broncos - Shanahan was an offensive coordinator many times over between college and the pros including previous stints with Denver and Oakland. Right now his offense is ranked 25th.

Andy Reid, Eagles - The former Green Bay offensive coordinator now presides over the 21st ranked offense.

Brad Childress, Vikings - The former Eagles coordinator was the hot commodity during the off-season coaching carousel before the 2006 season. Now there are whispers that he's already on his way out in Minnesota as his team struggles along with the 22nd ranked offense.

On the other side of the coin are former defensive coordinators Eric Mangini, Marvin Lewis, Wade Phillips, and Romeo Crennel whose teams are all ranked 20th or worse in overall defense.

Mangini, Jets - Those calling for the ouster of quarterback Chad Pennington might want to take a closer look at the Jets defense, currently ranked 28th overall.

Lewis, Bengals - The architect of the championship defense in Baltimore currently presides over the second worst defense in the league. Only the Dolphins are statistically worse.

Phillips, Cowboys - The man calling the plays on the sidelines in San Diego last year is now coaching a team with the 21st defense. Why again are so many people calling this the third best team in the league right now?

Crennel, Browns - The beleaguered Crennel has a legitimate chance of bringing the long-suffering Browns to the post-season in spite of a defense that currently ranks 30th due to a soft schedule. However, if the team fails to straighten out some the defensive failings between now and then, it's going to be one and done in the playoffs.

As for why I wrote this? The way the Patriots are going this season, Josh McDaniels is going to be the hot coaching commodity come the off-season. Of course general managers will ignore what they ignored with Brian Billick - the personnel. Does this make McDaniel a bad coach with good players?

Of course not.

However, in their quest to find their man, GM's make more out of results on the field in regards to a coach's hand in player performance in order to justify their hire. Sometimes the coach just has shinier toys to play with where they were.

Byrd-brained

The early information that's trickling out paints Cleveland's Paul Byrd as a fraud.

The self-proclaimed good Christian who says he would never cheat, said he was on a hormone treatment regimen that he claimed MLB and his team were aware of. He has been thrown under the bus by the Indians and MLB. The Indians who disavowed knowledge of his treatment regimen, and MLB who said he never had an exemption to receive hormone treatment with HGh. As a matter of fact, Indians GM Mark Shapiro said that his contact with Byrd concerning this issue began on Friday.

To make matters worse, Byrd obtained his prescription not from a medical doctor, but from a Florida dentist who was disbarred for fraud and incompetence.

Byrd reportedly spent $25,000.00 out of pocket for what he called a legitimate treatment for a pituitary problem. Personally, I'm a little surprised that the player's union has that bad a health insurance plan. Twenty-five grand out of pocket for a legit prescription? Yikes. That's one shitty co-pay he's got there.

Then of course there's the issue of the doctor who isn't a medical doctor and the fact that Byrd is evasive about when the problem was identified.

I would say, at this point, there is an outside chance he's telling the truth. Unfortunately, too much of what's coming out makes no sense - the doctor, the money, the source of the HGh, the evasiveness as to when it was determined he needed the treatment - in regards to a legitimate reason for taking the hormone.

Yankees braintrust - an oxymoron if ever there was one...

From 1977, Joe Torre's first year as a manager, until 1995 he had only five winning seasons. He was largely a mediocre manager until he was given the biggest freakin' payrolls in the history of American sport.

Since 1996 Torre has managed the Yankees to twelve straight playoff appearances and four World Series titles.

I am of the school that just about anybody could have success managing a line-up of all-stars either drafted or bought at every position. However, the last two seasons Joe Torre might have been the best manager in baseball.

As a Red Sox fan it pains me to say it, but given the Yankees pitching staff for the last two seasons, the fact that he got these yahoos to the playoffs both seasons is nothing short of amazing.

And as much as the Yankees are trying to make it appear that Torre turned them down, they made him an offer he had to refuse. He was fired. Twelve straight seasons in the post-season dance, and the man gets fired.

People that think that manager of the Yankees is the best job in major league sports hasn't taken a close look at the ownership they would have to answer to.

Rooked

On a night when Julio Lugo did everything he could to give the game away defensively, and JD Drew reverted for the first seven innings to being, well, JD Drew, Boston's rookies came up big. The AL East champions saw the rookie tandem from the far East, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima, combine for seven innings and two earned runs.

Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury combined for three of Boston's eleven runs, with Pedroia knocking in five. In the seventh Ellsbury made a play on a ball hit to the triangle in center that normal mortals wouldn't have been able to run down, and then one helluva diving catch for the first out of the ninth. Way for the rooks to stand up and be counted.

Realistically, though, this game may well have turned on the call of a certain third base coach that might find himself collecting unemployment in Cleveland this winter.

Kenny Lofton likely would have scored from second on the hit to left in the top of the seventh inning, tying the game up. There's no telling how that might have changed the dynamic of the late innings when the Sox came to bat. That's the kind of mistake that gets coaches fired.

Instead of a tie game, the wheels fell off in the eighth as the Indians imploded.

Adjusted...

For those keeping track - through seven games Tom Brady has 27 touchdowns. The new adjustment for the pace he's on? 61 for the season.

He's gotta slow down, right?

I've heard that Roger Goodell

Wants to bring professional football to South Florida and is considering Miami for an expansion franchise. The NFL figures there's a usable stadium, they just need a team.

42-7 by the half? That's just brutal.

Everything old is new again...

Is it just me, or did the last two Sundays of NFL action feel like 2002. The following quarterbacks either started, or replaced ineffective starters during those two days - Sage Rosenfels, Kurt Warner, Jeff Garcia, Vinny Testaverde, Kerry Collins, Tim Ratay and Damon Huard. Feel like yesterday, anyone?

Getting defensive...

When your team jumps out to a 42-7 lead by half-time, normally there's not a whole helluva lot to complain about...except in this case.

After half-time it was like the Patriots defense was thinking about what movie they were going to rent when they got home on Sunday night. After largely shutting down Miami through the first two quarters, the D spent much of the third and fourth quarters on their heels, getting ripped up by bottom of the roster running backs. It resulted in 14 points given up to a struggling Miami offense.

It's the second straight week that the Pats defense struggled against the run.

Bill Belichick is going to go to town on his defense this week. They deserve it. Up 49-14, these guys should have been playing with reckless abandon. Instead, they were just playing like wrecks.

Hard hits

Last night the Sox absolutely pasted the Indians 12-2. The offense? JD Drew knocked in five runs on a night when Manny and Big Papi struggled a little at the plate. Drew! In some quarters of Red Sox Nation that might be considered the fourth sign of the impending Apocalypse. Of course none of those people care because the Sox are one game closer to the World Series.

The Indians have now gone from up 3-1, to being on the brink. Yes the teams are tied 3-3, but all the pressure is on the Tribe now. After winning three straight by a combined score of 24-11, they have dropped two straight potential clinchers by a combined 19-3.

Overall, the Indians are 12 for 64 (.188) in those two games. They were 33 of 112 (.295) in their three wins. Somebody is wilting as the heat is getting turned up.

On top of all that, the Indians are about to get slammed with a major locker-room distraction.

Now I have to wonder about the Indians' chances.

Tonight is gonna be fun.


Maxwell's Silver Hammer...

A little piece of living football history was lost yesterday.

Former Green Bay Packer wide receiver Max McGee fell off the roof of his house while prepping it for the Minnesota winter. According to reports, efforts to revive McGee by Police who reported to the scene of the accident at 5:20 PM were unsuccessful.

McGee was the unlikely hero of Super Bowl I. Hung-over from the night before (he didn't think he was going to see the field), McGee caught the first touchdown in Super Bowl history after entering the game for Packers receiver Boyd Dowler who left the game with a shoulder injury. He went on to rack up 47 more yards in the big game (138), than he had for the entire 1967 season (91).

Rest well, big guy.

It's elementary, Watson...


The pundits are calling today's Patriots game a cake-walk, a gimme. They're already pencilling in the W. Do I think they're going to win? Yes. Do I think it's going to be easy? When's the last time that the Pats had an easy game in Miami?

The former Joe Robbie Stadium has been a personal house of horrors for Tom Brady (the team is 4-14 in its last 18 visits to Miami and Brady is 2-4).


Granted, Brady has not had the weapons at receiver he has this season. However, they're going into this game without Sammy Morris or Ben Watson and even with Laurence Maroney there's a fair chance that he will at least be limited due to the groin injury. This might be Kyle Eckel's chance to show the NFL he belongs. This is also going to be an opportunity for Marcellus Rivers to show the rest of the NFL that they made a mistake by letting him languish in the free-agent market.


It's supposed to be a hot and humid one in Miami today - a good day for sprinters, a good day for wide-outs.

It should be interesting.

Whatta week

National Impact...

As my regulars know, last weekend I spent in Louisville, KY for the US Australian Football Nationals tournament in which I participated as a member of the Baltimore/Washington Eagles. Unfortunately last Wednesday I started to get sick and ended up playing with flu-like symptoms through the course of the weekend.

Last year we won the Division II title. This year we were in Division I.

On Saturday we defeated the Boston Demons and then the Orange County Bombers to extend our winning streak to 13 games going back to September of 2006.

We fared less well on Sunday, dropping the game we needed to get into the finals to the Denver Bulldogs. The Bulldogs, eventual winners of the Division I title, took advantage of mistakes. We did not. As such, they outplayed us and deserved the win.

A future in stand-up...

Patrick Crayton - Tony Romo's fourth receiving option behind Terrell Owens, Terry Glenn and Jason Witten - claims to not be impressed with a defense that held his offense, which until last week was a top two offense, to 20 points. He claimed that the Patriots defense only stopped them when Dallas committed penalties on third down. I guess he didn't watch the first quarter when his team couldn't manage a first down...and none of that was because of penalties on third down.

I will not say that the Pats defense was without problems, but let's face some facts here - Dallas buzz-sawed through its first four opponents, never scoring less than 34 points in a game. Then they come up against Buffalo (whose defense got smoked by the Patriots) and New England. Against each of these teams the Dallas offense could score only two touchdowns and a handful of field goals.

Makes one wonder, to use Crayton's term, whether the Dallas offense is the "real deal."

The only thing the Cowboys proved to me is that they are the best of the junior varsity circuit, and that their players need to worry about playing, not mouthing off.

One last note - Crayton was partially right - there were a lot of penalties his team committed on third down. Thing is, notice that the Patriots didn't commit them. That's what good teams do - they remain disciplined and they take advantage of other team's mistakes.

Dallas is overrated.

He should be wearing a big red S on his chest...

Josh Beckett has been Superman in the post-season.

With the way rest of the Red Sox pitching has seemed like they've been pitching batting practice, Beckett has, in essence, extended the Sox post-season run by two games. Unless someone else comes up big tonight, the Sox will finish their season in front of the Fenway Faithful.

Honestly, I think I'm okay with that.

Would I prefer to see them get another ring? Yes. But with the way this team played for the last six weeks of the season, I didn't think they would get past the first round. Everything has been icing for me since the end of the season.

Should they lose, I will live with it and likely root for the Rockies in the World Series. It's hard not to root for a team that voted a full playoff share for the widow of a minor league first-base coach.

That said, Go Sox!

A busy weekend...

So, I'm Tivo-ing the Pats game on Sunday, and will be catching up on all the relevant playoff info sometime on Monday as I am road-tripping tomorrow to the Aussie Rules Nationals in Louisville, KY.

I will have two games on Saturday, and at least one game on Sunday (possibly more depending on how well we - the Baltimore/Washington Eagles - perform in the preliminary rounds).

I will do my best to blog this weekend, but I wouldn't count on a whole lot happening. Also, welcome Indians fan Liz. Yeah, the next couple of days are going to be fun.

If you're unfamiliar, you might want to check out bitterfans.com - it's Cleveland heavy in its coverage.

The Big Tease and other thoughts

The big tease...the New York Yankees. That's what they've become. They're the Buffalo Bills of the early 1990's, the Philadelphia Eagles of the first part of this century. They have become the American League version of the Atlanta Braves.

They make it to the post-season, they just can't do anything when they're there.

And this time Yankees' fans can't blame A-Rod who batted a vaguely respectable .267 with one home-run, two runs scored, and one RBI.

By contrast, Derek Jeter, the Yankee-who-can-do-no-wrong with Yankee fans - .176, no runs, one RBI. The Yankees had five starters bat below .200 for the series with their starting first baseman at a rousing .000.

Maybe George Steinbrenner should take a closer look at the talent he forces Cashman to pursue before he cans Joe Torre. The fact that they removed Roger Clemens from the post-season roster is a pretty strong indictment of Steinbrenner's personnel wants and needs.

Bring on the Indians.

They had a bad day...

And still scored 34. The defense came up big when needed, but gave up more yardage to the Browns than to any other team so far this year. Tom Brady, however, looked distracted and frustrated the whole game.

When Brady missed his mark, it was generally his fault. Very few of his passes were dropped, and several of the times that they were (passes primarily to Moss) the receptions would have been highlight reel sort of plays.

Next week the Pats play the Cowboys who barely escaped from Buffalo with a win last night. Is this another indictment of the quality of football in the NFC, that Dallas was within seconds of losing to one of the worst teams in the AFC East?

Running on empty...

There's no other way to say this than - the organizers of the Chicago Marathon are idiots. Complete morons. And they need to keep sponsors of the event from making stupid comments to the press.

For those of you who don't know, the Chicago Marathon was run in close to 90 degree heat without adequate water supplies.

This is from the CNN report -

Organizers insisted they adjusted their plans for the heat and boosted the number of drink servings at the race's 15 aid stations to 1.8 million from 1.6 million, as well as adding misting areas, extra ice and water-soaked sponges.
"We did feel we had more than adequate water supplies out there," said Shawn Platt, senior vice president of LaSalle Bank, the marathon's sponsor.
Platt said planners did not anticipate runners would use drinking water to cool themselves when misting stations and sponges weren't available. He acknowledged many stations and sponges were set up toward the end of the route instead of early on when runners first started showing signs of fatigue.

I have been running in road races since I ran track in high school...some 23 or 24 years now, and that includes at least one marathon. I have never been in a road race where runners didn't use drinking water to cool themselves. It happens in every road race.

Now this guy Platt is a senior VP at a bank, but I guess he is not a particularly gifted mathematician. His argument is that they increased the total number of drink servings at the marathon by a total of 200,000 for the 35,000 runners. Let's run through the math on this. That's an additional 200 servings per 35 runners, or a total of an additional 5.7 servings throughout the course of the marathon. Split between the 15 aid stations? That's less than half a cup additional per runner per aid station. That means they went from 3 cups per station per runner to approximately 3.4 cups on a 90 degree day.

Part of what's amazing about this is that the organizers continue to try and defend themselves instead of coming out and owning up to the fact that they completely fucked this up.

All that glitters is not gold...

The Yankees are potentially nine innings from thinking about 2008. Nine innings and maybe just a couple of days from learning whether there will be a bidding war for their star third baseman/shortstop, or if he will just play out his contract.

Alex Rodriguez will be the pretty bauble on the free-agent market.

There is reason after regular season reason for pursuing him. A-Rod is a perennial MVP candidate and an RBI producer. This year he had better late inning production than any other time in his career.

It is not exactly a secret that Theo covets A-Rod and his production. He sees A-Rod as the successor to Manny Ramirez in the line-up behind Ortiz, and can have him bat behind Man-Ram in his final year in a Sox uniform in Mike Lowell's spot.

There is a major reason to stay as far away from this money pit as possible. It's called the post-season.

This is a man that melts in a cauldron like a wax monkey.

Since his home-run against the Red Sox in the 2004 play-offs A-Rod is more FRod (yeah, do the phonetic pronunciation for the double entendre). He is a raging 4 for 50. That's a blazing post-season average of .080.

I can't help but think that signing him away from the Yankees would essentially be the Red Sox taking the monkey of the Bronx Bommahs' collective backs (not that any of his teammates have been doing any damage - check out my last post).

Two down, one to go...

The Yankees are one game away from being swept. One game from being bounced in the first round...again.

In the first game their pitching - starters and bullpen alike - failed them. In this game their bullpen once again failed them.

More importantly, in consecutive post-seasons, their all-star starting line-up has failed them.

This is what we've seen from the Yankees starters -

Johnny Damon, 1 for 9 (.111)
Derek Jeter, 1 for 8 (.125)
Bobby Abreu, 2 for 6 (.333)
Alex Rodriguez, 0 for 6 (.000)
Hideki Matsui, 0 for 7 (.000)
Jorge Posada, 0 for 7 (.000)
Robinson Cano, 1 for7 (.143)
Melky Cabrera, 1 for 8 (.125)
Doug Mientkiewicz, 0 for 4 (.000)

That means Yankee starters are batting .o97 for the ALDS thus far. Against a team they swept in the regular season. Against a team against which New York batted .348 and outscored 49-17 during the regular season - an average of 8 runs per game to Cleveland's 2.83 runs per game.

Right now they're averaging 2 runs to Cleveland's 7 per game in the playoffs.

What was Steinbrenner's name for A-Rod again? Mr. April?

This

Is

Awesome.

Interesting week...

I'm gonna start with the bad and work my way back to the good....

Do The Right Thing...

Thirty-seven years ago I was born to Lawrence and Elaine Smith in the City of Brotherly Love. At the age of three my parents moved to Sudbury, MA. Growing up we would visit my extended family, almost all of whom remained in the Philadelphia area.

I remember being taken to see the Phillies at Veteran's Stadium when growing up. I may have seen more Phillies games in person while living just outside of Boston than I did Sox games.

I rooted for the Phillies during the 1980 World Series (familial ties and all).

That said, I have to admit, in light of recent actions by the Colorado Rockies players, I am rooting for the Coors Field crew this year. During an era filled with "me-first" players, this is one of those stories about players doing the right thing for the right reasons.

For those of you who don't know, a first-base coach, Mike Coolbaugh, for one of the Rockies' minor league affiliates was struck in the head and killed by a line-drive earlier this season. Coolbaugh was survived by his pregnant wife and two small children. The players voted Coolbaugh's widow, Amanda, a full playoff share.

For more on this, check out this article.

Sorry Philly, but the playoff share is bigger for the winner than for the loser, and I think the Rockies are playing for more right now than you are.

Spankees...

Chien-Ming Wang is supposed to be the Yankees' Ace. The roster Joe Torre and Brian Cashman activated for the playoffs is supposed to give the Bommahs their best chance to win.

Wang gave up eight earned in four-and-two-thirds innings.

The pitcher who relieved him, Ross Ohlendorf, gave up another four in just an inning of work.

At this point I'm unwilling to count out the Yankees due to their record against the Indians this year (6-0), however, a team that has struggled to get quality starting pitching like the Yankees have, this sort of performance from the team's ace cannot be reassuring to the Yankees faithful.

About as surprising as a bad Yankees pitching performance...

Track star Marion Jones is reportedly admitting to doping use after years of vehement denials.

For anyone familiar with Jones, she has been fighting allegations since before the 2004 Olympics, however they were heard the loudest at the '04 Games. Her denials always rang hollow with me.

I'm a track and field guy. I was a quarter-miler and hurdler in high school and college. I used to follow the sport much more closely than I do now, but now it seems as though for all the biggest names in the sport that it's not a matter of whether or not they're doping so much as when they'll be caught doping.

Marion Jones should come as no surprise.

Her former coach Trevor Graham was a reputed supplier, she has links to Victor Conte and BALCO, her former boyfriend Tim Montgomery is serving a two-year ban for doping, her then-husband, shot-putter CJ Hunter and fellow Olympian at the time of the 2004 Olympics was dismissed from the world's biggest sporting event when he tested positive. Graham also coached fellow banned track stars Michelle Collins and Justin Gatlin. Jones also hired Canadian coach Charlie Francis, who had already admitted providing drugs to banned Canadian track-star Ben Johnson when she hired him.

She has surrounded herself with people of questionable character. Is it really any surprise that she is too?

Welcome to the old boy network...

Ah...the NBA. Providing a woman a place where she can be called "bitch," or "ho" without any ramifications for the man.

Yup.

You heard right.

A jury found Isiah Thomas guilty of sexual harassment and the league says that it won't discipline Thomas because its system does not account for civil matters. Women of America, welcome to a great place to work...if you're a guy.

This is just another black-eye for a league that has been steadily declining in popularity since the mid-Nineties. Does anyone think Roger Goodell would claim impotence under the rules if Tom Heckert in Philadelphia, or even Scott Pioli in New England were convicted of the same? Paul Tagliabue would have had to deal with the 49ers and their "training tape" were it not for the fact that 49ers ownership acted swiftly and decisively in canning the man responsible for the tape.

Thank you, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. Don't collect $200.00.

There's the rub.

No matter what Thomas does, he's James Dolan's golden boy. He can do no wrong.

Never mind the fact that he has put together some of the worst teams the NBA has ever seen and completely destroyed viewership in the nation's largest television market (and Dolan supposedly fired the plaintiff for incompetence? HAH!). Never mind the fact that Thomas has spent a record amount of money in putting these putrescent teams together (her incompetence had to do with budget management? And Thomas has shown such a gift for this?). And now, never mind the fact that a jury unanimously found him guilty of creating a hostile work environment for this woman.

Dolan will stand by his man and David Stern will stand by and do nothing.

Dolan will stand by, inarguably, the worst executive in professional sports right now (and that includes Matt Millen).

Dolan's loyalty is an admirable quality in an employer...when the employee has shown that he/she is worthy of such loyalty. But there are two problems with Dolan's loyalty - he has put it in a man whose every action has destroyed the Knick reputation, and in an effort to defend his delinquent team president, accused another employee of almost everything that Thomas is guilty of - incompetence, and an inability to manage a budget. The only thing Dolan didn't accuse her of was sexual harassment.

Yup...welcome to the old boy network.

So, that's what an off game looks like...

Patriots 34, Bengals 13.

Tom Brady had his lowest completion percentage of the season at a gaudy 78.1.

Randy Moss had his lowest yardage total at 102.

The offense put up only 34 points.

For other teams these offensive numbers would increase the respective averages associated with each. On the Patriots its bringing the overall numbers down.

And, oddly, in spite of the 21-point loss, the Bengals defense did appear to slow down the Patriots a little. Of course the only time Cincy really stopped them they had 12 men on the field.

A lot can happen between now and the end of the season, and the Patriots have yet to face their toughest opposition, but could 16-0 really be within reach? Not something I would normally put out there, but with this team you have to wonder.

The weekend that was...

What a weird weekend.

There are a lot of things that happened in the last three days that I would not have thought possible, or even likely four days ago -

• The Phillies, looking every bit the champion in taking advantage of the Mets' woes in managing to overtake New York to win the East. Now New York teams bear two dubious honors - the worst post-season collapse in the history (see Yankees), and now the worst regular season collapse in the history of baseball with the Mets coughing up a seven game lead with seventeen left to play. No team in the history of baseball has done that.
• New York fans can look at the bright side - the Giants took revenge on the Eagles on the Mets behalf. That Sunday night game was just ugly, and unless the Eagles make adjustments, every team they face is going to attack that turnstile they call a left tackle. Actually, to call Winston Justice a turnstile is to pay him a compliment - turnstiles slow people down when they have to drop a token in the slot. Osi Umenyiori would at least have had to break stride on his way to McNabb had he encountered a turnstile. He blocked like a kicker tackles...ole.
• Anyone here see the Cardinals win over the Steelers coming? Anyone? Ken Wisenhut, put your hand down.
• The Chicago Bears offense was...well...offensive. I said it last week, Greise is not the answer. Let's face it, the Bears are hoping that a guy who failed to make the grade in four previous spots would bail them out of their quarterbacking predicament. This is going to be a long, long season for the Chicago faithful. If Greise has another start like this one, get used to the following words Bears fans; Welcome to the Kyle Orton era.
• Reportedly JP Losman is worried about his job as the starter in Buffalo. He should be. From the little I have seen of his back-up, Trent Edwards, the rookie looks to be as far along as the now veteran Losman in terms of development, and that should worry Losman. Of the two, right now I think Edwards gives the team the best chance to win over the long haul.
• Brett Favre looks like he has found the fountain of youth.
• When a team blows a first round pick on a glorified kick returner when in desperate need of a quarterback, is it any surprise to see that team start 0-4. I'm talking about you Miami, I'm talking about you.
• Could Cleveland (2-2) have turned a corner? They are currently 2-1 in their division, putting them in second place in the AFC North ahead of the 2-2 Ravens. It's still early, but Cincy and Baltimore are giving the Browns hope. In their next three they have a tough game against the Patriots, winnable games against the Dolphins and Rams, and if they can steal a game from the Seahawks, they could go into their rematch against the Steelers at a respectible 5-3. If they keep playing like this, ten wins might not be out of the question. I'm guessing eight, but ten wouldn't surprise me, not at this point. Looks like Romeo Crennel might be well on his way to saving his job.
• Take heart Denver fans - as bad as the final score looked, the Broncos did a lot of good things on offense that will pay dividends down the road if and when the defense comes together. Granted, Jay Cutler can use more seasoning, but there was nothing wrong with that running game.

Just a few thoughts.

Exposed

AJ Smith has been exposed.

He has been exposed as arrogant and conceited. He has been exposed as nothing more than a glorified scout that should not be allowed to make personnel decisions in regards to coaching staffs. He has been exposed as a man who obviously believes that HE is the most important cog in constructing a winning NFL franchise.

He is not.

Worse - he probably still doesn't get it.

Because he couldn't stand his Hall of Fame Coach or the thought that his HOF Coach wanted to hire his own brother as the defensive coordinator. So, he fired him.

Smith replaced Marty Shottenheimer with the man Shottenheimer replaced in Washington DC - Norv Turner. Somehow Smith missed that Shottenheimer was successful with the same roster that Turner couldn't win with.

Now, Turner is showing how he can once again fail to win with the same personnel that Shottenheimer had.

Ted Cottrell has coached the Chargers once aggressive, attacking defense into a mess that gave up 23 of 30 points to a team that had scored a record low 26 points in the first three weeks of the season. Turner has presided over a team that looked barely ready for prime time in their one win against the Bears, and has given up over 30 points per game during their three game slide.

Turner, the so-called offensive genius has managed to turn one the best teams from last season to one of the worst in the AFC...only quarter of the way through the season. They are last in their division and only one team, the 0-4 Dolphins have a worse record in the AFC. In their own division the Raiders have outscored them by over 40 points, and in the entire conference only three teams have given up more - Jets (103), Browns (118), and Dolphins (109).

The Chargers today lost to a rebuilding Chiefs team that has struggled to move the ball...well, until they met the Chargers.

And the bottom line is that AJ Smith is responsible for this mess. If Chargers owner Alex Spanos is smart, he gives Turner and Smith until the bye on October 21. If the team blows games to either Denver or Oakland, both divisional foes, it is likely done for the season unless a radical change is made. That change needs to be both Smith and Turner, because if there is one thing that has become painfully obvious, it's that the Chargers weren't amongst the most talented last season - but they were among the best coached.

For those who dispute that. Other than Antonio Gates and LaDainian Tomlinson, who on that offense instills fear in opponents? And right now, no one on that defense is instilling any fear either. So maybe Smith, as opposed to him being the great talent evaluator, and his players were a product of Shottenheimer's coaching.

Are these the two dumbest Jets fans ever?

Some people just don't get it.

These guys are in that group.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A New York Jets season-ticket holder filed a class-action lawsuit Friday against the New England Patriots and coach Bill Belichick for "deceiving customers."
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., by Carl Mayer of Princeton
Township, N.J., stems from the Patriots being caught illegally videotaping signals from Jets coaches in New England's 38-14 season-opening win Sept. 9.
"They violated the integrity of the game," Mayer's attorney, Bruce Afran, told The Associated Press. "This is a way of punishing Belichick and the Patriots."
Mayer is seeking more than $184 million in damages for Jets ticket holders.

According to the AP article, the two have a history of frivolous lawsuits that often fail to make it to court. Of course they note here that the Patriots action was illegal, which is already an inaccurate statement. Sure it's against the rules of the game, but I would love to see the state statute that the Pats would have had to violate to make their action "illegal."

This doesn't even tap into the can of worms that this would open up if the case did make it to court. Do these people really think that the Jets have been completely innocent during the time period that is in question? Do they really think that other teams don't know what the Jets might have engaged in?

If this makes it to court it's going to open a gate to Hell for the NFL because the Patriots, in their defense will unearth every other team's dirty little secrets.

Idiots.