The NFL offseason - putting the FUN back in dysFUNction

This has been a busy offseason for the NFL - the Pacman Jones and Chris Henry suspensions, the impending Tank Johnson suspension, the Michael Vick investigation. And this is just the tip of the iceberg with other players like Green Bay linebacker Nick Barnett being arrested and a tenth Bengal in the last 14 months getting picked up.

While it seems like the NFL is a refuge for violent offenders and yes, the number is rising every year, the proportion of males given to criminal behavior in society as a whole is still larger proportionately than the number in the NFL.

No...the dysfunction that I want to talk about isn't the criminals as I have so often littered our headlines of late. I want to take a quick look at the NFL's dysfunctional franchises.

1. The Bengals - The Queen City's grid-iron entry gets the top ranking by default with close to 20 percent of the team making for a police line-up. Marvin Lewis has his work cut out as he goes about trying to change the culture of criminality in his lockerroom.

2. The Raiders - A few lucky bounces are all that kept this team from going 0-16 last season and now the players are whining that practices are too tough. Al Davis is going to be dead before this team wins again.

3. The Bears - How often does a team make it to the Super Bowl, only to have the defensive tackle go to jail, linebacker hold out, a defensive lineman throw the starting quarterback under the bus, and the ownership get involved in a protracted and ugly contract negotiation with the winningest head coach they have had since Ditka left. Anyone really think that this team is really going to make it to the Super Bowl again.

4. The Falcons - Everything that comes out of here is either done to enable Michael Vick, or make excuses for him, which I suppose amounts to the same thing. If Vick gets indicted in the dogfighting probe, and subsequently suspended, it could be the best thing to happen to this team.

5. The Vikings - It seems like whenever news comes out of the Dome in regards to the purple, it's about how Childress has already lost the locker room, what some player has done wrong, or what horrible personnel move that the team has made.

Some more quick hits

Game over part 1 -
Baltimore bottoms out with only three teams in the majors with worse records (Kansas City, Texas, and Cincinnati), and the man brought in to be the savior is shown the door. Oddly, the team is batting .260 which puts them just below the Major League average of (approximately) .263. The team ERA, however, is in the top half of MLB at 4.27 (tied for 13th). Why do I bring this up? Because it makes no sense that all their other numbers would be around...well...average, and that they would have to win their next 11 straight just to be at .500.

It makes one take note of what sort of overall impact it has that they are batting near the league average, but somehow are 24th in runs scored. So long Sam Perlozzo. Nice knowing you.

Game over part 2 -
Didn't this guy promise Roger Goodell he would stay away from clubs and impose a curfew on himself in order to stay out of trouble?

Now, I know this isn't quite on the level of Vegas, but at this point, Jones has been caught be police while driving on a suspended license, and is now wanted for questioning as a witness to a fight at a club, and subsequent shooting involving friends of his. Not exactly keeping his nose clean.

Some thoughts and observations

What's wrong with this picture? Over the last six starts, Red Sox pitchers have won four games - Two by Wakefield, one by Tavarez, one by Matsuzaka. The two losses? Absolute shellings of Schilling and Beckett. I hope that we're not on the verge of seeing a repeat of last season with Beckett where he was sterling early and pitching batting practice late.

It was a good weekend for JD Drew who looks like he's breaking out of his slump. He and Dustin Padroia were a two man wrecking crew against the Giants on Friday, pretty much accounting for all of the Red Sox 10 runs.

If Padroia keeps this up, we'll be looking at two serious contenders (Hideki Okajima the other) for Rookie of the Year coming from the Old Towne Team. Also, if the adjustment that Matsuzaka made keeps him looking like he did over the weekend, he could still make a run at the award as well. I could be wrong, but I think the last time the Sox had two rookies up for that award, Fred Lynne edged Jim Rice for the honor.

And to end on a football note -

I am now officially a fan of New Orleans Saints defensive end Charles Grant...as per Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback column at SI -

3. I think the best story I've heard in a while about a guy not forgetting where he was in Saints camp on their last day of the off season program. Defensive end Charles Grant called over the club's vice president of communications, Greg Bensel, handed him a wad of $100-dollar bills -- 20 to be exact -- and told him he wanted to buy lunch for all the women who work in the team offices. "Can you make it happen?'' Grant asked Bensel. He did, handing the $2,000 to GM Mickey Loomis' administrative assistant, who organized the luncheon field trip for the women in the building. Way to remember where you came from, Charles.

More bad press for the Georgia prosecutors

I'm not going to go into detail on this as I think the AP story tells it all, but I will say, if this is true, then the attorney and his assistants that prosecuted Genarlow Wilson should at the very least be disbarred and criminal charges should be a consideration.

An idea that's been floating in my head...

I know this would be almost impossible to pull off given the shear size of Red Sox Nation, and the number of us who blog, but I have been tossing around the idea of BoSox Bloggers conventions.

This is the thought in my head - since Fenway is selling out regularly, and it's obscenely expensive to get tickets to the "lyric little bandbox," each year, or twice a year (maybe once early and once late), Sox bloggers converge on one of the minor league sites like Lowell, Pawtucket, Greenville, Portland, or even Gulf Coast (sorry West Coast bloggers, you're on your own with Lancaster).

Maybe even hold every 5th year at a bar like the Cask and Flagon in Boston during the season.

I would be surprised if it weren't something that the minor league affiliates would be into. Of course, that would mean the group of us would have to become much more organized, maybe even sort of incorporate...official member of BoSox Bloggers or something. I would love to get feedback and suggestions on how to go about this - or if all you others out there think that would even be possible.

Personally, I like the idea of being able to talk Sox face to face with the brethren.

201 - looking back and looking forward...

Well, I had hoped to run an interview here with Boston Herald columnist Steve Buckley about Drew Bledsoe's place in NFL and Patriots history. We have corresponded on the subject several times, and I am still hoping that he will be able to do the interview. That said, I have a Q&A I did with Steve Sabol a couple of years ago hidden away somewhere on a cassette in my hard files that - should I find it, I will transcribe it and post it here.

Let's see - let's do the quick hits before looking back...

*The aging Schilling is continuing his Jeckyll and Hyde-like season, following a good outing with a bad one. However, it is encouraging that it looks like Wakefield might have turned the corner and be on the verge of one of his streaks.

*What has happened to Red Sox hitting over the last week? A pitching deficient team like the Rockies (team leader in ERA 3.81, team ERA 4.51) comes to town and holds the Sox (BA .374) to a combined four runs in two games? Are you kidding me?

*I realize that Coco Crisp played much of last year injured, but this is Crisp's fifth year in the bigs, and it appears that he is going backwards. Maybe he just can't stand the pressure of playing in front of the frenzied throngs at Fenway a la Edgar Renteria, but the one thing that is becoming obvious - Crisp is just not an everyday player for the Sox.

*At least one thing I read about the Patriots training camp this past weekend concerns me about Randy Moss. There has been a lot of fanfare trumpeting his arrival at the Razor, but it seems that some writers have noted that Moss is consistently the last one in his group (the receivers) to finish drills - the last in sprints, and seldom showed anything in practice (but when he did, many members of the press oohed and ahhed accordingly).

If this is what Moss thinks will fly in New England, we have a very interesting game of chicken that's about to start between him and the Patriots brain trust.

*Anybody else curious about what Roger Goodell told Pacman Jones in the meeting that preceded Jones dropping his appeal? I would have loved to have been a fly on that wall.

* Speaking of problem children - is it just me, or does it sound like things are about to either heat up, or fall apart in the federal quest for an indictment of Barry Bonds, heat up for Michael Vick, and am I the only one that heard about Bud Selig maybe considering possibly suspending Jason Giambi if he doesn't cooperate with the Mitchell investigation and thought, "wow, Hell of a backbone you're showing there Mr. Commissioner."

Anyone else think that Selig is the sort of guy at a restaurant that orders one thing, then as he hands the menu back, tells the waiter, "uh...no, how about" something else, and then gives yet another order before the server manages to walk away? Just me?

A quick look back...

I graduated from Emerson College in Boston's Back Bay in the early 1990's with a degree in writing and a minor in film. What does one do with a writing degree?

Well, for a year I worked for the City of Boston's Public Facilities Department in the first time home buyers program. I then moved on to approximately four years working in marketing, moved to Philadelphia where I spent five years teaching (while getting freelance writing and editing gigs, including a gig as the interim assistant sports editor of one of the suburban weeklies just outside of Philly), and eventually ended up in Maryland as the business writer for the Frederick Gazette, a subsidiary of the Washington Post.

I was never fond of business writing and have since moved on from that (I currently am the Maryland columnist for the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, and the Media Relations manager for the United States Australian Football League), and at the time had been offered a chance to come on board as a sports writer (which I turned down due to the evening hours combined with the fact that I wanted to be able to see my then two-year old daughter grow up). Rather than go through my blog to identify pieces I'm particularly fond of here which I did in post 150, I thought it might be more interesting to cover some of the articles that got into the various papers.

Here are a handful of articles that I am particularly proud of (all of which in my mind bear some sort of blemish, but I think we're always hardest on our own work), and all are sports related -

1. Coverage of the Rick Block Classic memorial basketball game.

2. The first day I was working at the South Philly Review, I was asked to do a story on a school closing, this is what I ended up with. It was not exactly the easiest first day in the world, but still better for me than for the subject. I hope the family and friends are healing.

3. Not my best writing, but I have always liked this piece I wrote about the Philadelphia Liberty Belles women's football team.

4. This time last year, the local bicyclers were heady over the prospect of Floyd Landis challenging in the Tour de France due partially to the fact that Frederick County, MD was where Landis cut his teeth as a mountain biker when younger. It's interesting to watch the way everyone interested in cycling is waiting with great anticipation to see how everything turns out.

5. A rant that I wrote for the folks over at Bitterfans about Hall of Fame voting in the NFL.

There are others I could have posted, some of which, for whatever reason never made it onto the web (I always liked my preview of the Red Sox 1996 season that I did for the now defunct Boston Chronicle, however far off I might have been), but these are some of the ones I am particularly fond of.

As readers may have noticed, I have been much more prolific this year than in past years as I might approach 200 posts in this year alone, not counting my other blogs Gibbering Idiot Press (entertainment, comics, sci-fi, horror), WiredFrederick (local interest to where I live), and In The Ruck (Australian football in the US). If I ever find the tape I made of the interview with Steve Sabol, I will make sure it gets posted...couching it in the year that the interview actually happened (which might have been in 2002).

Peace.

Post 200 - Big Win for Wilson

So, I had something special planned for my 200th post here at TheAngryFan, but I think I have to celebrate the 200th post in post 201...maybe that will become my tradition. I have been working on an interview, and I am waiting to hear back from my contact - he sounded interested, but did mention to me that he is currently busy. As I said, I still hope to do the interview.

Something happened though that merited cause to bump the interview. Those of you who are regular readers know that I have written on occasion about the ongoing saga of Genarlow Wilson, the then 17-year old honor student and football player in Georgia who received a blow-job, freely given, at a party from a 15-year old. Wilson found himself in jail serving a mandatory ten-year sentence on a child molestation charge that carried with it a record in the sex offender registry.

At the time Wilson went to jail, he was being recruited by colleges like Brown.

At noon today a judge, after hearing an appeal from Wilson's lawyers, "gave Genarlow Wilson a 12-month misdemeanor sentence with credit for time already served," effectively expunging Wilson's name from the sex offender registry.

While this has been a major win for Wilson, it is not the end as the state is expected to appeal the ruling, keeping Wilson in jail until at least the next court date.

When Wilson gets out, it will be a prime opportunity for those schools which recruited him to really step up to the plate and show what they're made of.

A well needed win...

I stand by my earlier statements regarding Curt Schilling and the degradation of skills. That said, it was a hell of a showing yesterday when the Sox needed it. While the story the press is reflecting on is the no hitter that got away in the ninth inning, it really should be wrapped around the fact that Schilling only threw 100 pitches to come away with the complete game one-hit win.

Schilling, who has historically gone deep in counts, walked no one and faced 29 total batters.

Why is all this so important? Because over the last couple of years when Schilling has been allowed to throw more pitches in a game, his following start to two starts have suffered. It was particularly noticeable last year after a 130+ pitch outing against Cleveland and Schilling just looked old for his next two starts.

One other observation: Is it just me, or have Schilling's trouble spots come up whenever he has shaken Varitek off?

Good job boys...now let's get number nine for Beckett. Number nine, number nine, number nine...

From bad to worse...
I'm trying to figure out if the Feds getting involved in the Vick dogfighting case bodes worse for Vick or Gerald Poindexter, the Surry County prosecutor who appeared to be dragging his feet on this case.

Poindexter upon being ousted by the Feds, made the following statement as part of the AP article:

"There's a larger thing here, and it has nothing to do with any breach of protocol," Poindexter said, still trying to rationalize where the federal government fits in. "There's something awful going on here. I don't know if it's racial. I don't know what it is."

Vick and Poindexter are black.

Of course, here are some of the issues that have taken place under Poindexter's watch:

1. Shortly after the May 25th raid, the state animal control rep who was with the police on the raid noted that there was enough evidence to begin issuing indictments/warrants for arrests, particularly in light of the fact that neighbors could place Vick at the house in spite of his assertions that he was never there. Those warrants still have not arrived.
2. Multiple witnesses have come forward over the last two weeks connecting Vick with dogfighting. Still no warrant.
3. During Poindexter's watch, the Vick home where this all took place was broken into. Publicly Poindexter seemed unconcerned, stating that he believed that whoever broke into the home was probably just after furnishings...never mind the fact that it was a crime scene, and it could easily have been someone going there to destroy evidence.
4. At least one witness noted that a number of dead dogs are buried on the property. Somehow Poindexter's office screwed up that warrant, and had to wait for that one to expire while a new warrant was in the works.
5. As a breeder of these dogs, and an allegedly individual involved in fighting the dogs in both North Carolina and Virginia, the crime crosses state boundaries and becomes a federal offense.

All of this doesn't even account for the fact that the Vick family appears to get special treatment on the Virginia peninsula due to their celebrity status as athletes. Really, would Marcus Vick have gotten the slap on the wrist he had if he wasn't either of the following; A) The starting QB at Virginia Tech B) Michael Vick's little brother C) A black sports star in a predominantly black area?

Do I think there might be some racism at play? Maybe, maybe not. If there is, I don't think it's on the part of the Feds. Have the Feds lost confidence in Poindexter's ability to prosecute this case because of other issues? I'm guessing that's a yes.

Shoring up the minors...
According to the Herald, this is our newest first draft pick...

The Sox took University of Washington left-hander Nick Hagadone with their first selection, the 55th overall pick and the 25th pick of the compensation round. The 6-foot-5, 230-pound junior averaged 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings while posting a 6-1 record, 11 saves and a 2.77 ERA in 25 games this season.

All in all, that doesn't look too bad for a team whose first pick didn't come until the second round. Especially considering the kid is a lefty.

Coming Soon...Post 200!

Samuel and a lack of class

I've been debating whether or not to address this for some time...until I read the following by Don Banks at Sports Illustrated, "Moss last week traveled with his new teammates to New Orleans for the wake of Patriots defensive lineman Marquise Hill -- who drowned May 27 after his jet ski flipped in Lake Pontchartrain -- a player he had barely met."

Reports in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald noted Samuel's absence from the funeral. I wasn't thrilled about it at the time, as Samuel had been Hill's teammate on the defensive side of the ball for Hill's entire professional career.

Samuel has repeatedly claimed to understand that the NFL is a business, but it seems to me, when a person spurns a teammate's funeral during a contract dispute, then the dispute is moved into the personal. Maybe he had a family emergency...maybe. Or maybe he wanted to avoid having to face the Patriot front office which attended.

Either way, I think he needs to explain his absence. That event wasn't about team. It was about our connection to each other as individuals - and right now I'm seeing someone for whom money is king over all else. I don't know if that's a teammate I would want back.

Quick Shots...

It's about time that CNN and the AP picked this story up. Genarlow Wilson is back in the news on the day when his lawyer BJ Bernstein is in court for a Habeus hearing on his behalf. Good luck kid.

Trading one broken player for another...
So the trigger finally got pulled on the deal sending Trent Green to the Miami Dolphins as the solution to Miami's quarterbacking woes. Last year the 'Phins entered the season with high hopes that the rehabbing Duante Culpepper was healthy enough to lead them to the promised land in the AFC East, only to find that they had overpaid for an injured quarterback who pretty much looked done.

After only a handful of starts, Culpepper finished the season on injured reserve.

Now, the 'Phins completed a trade and new contract for Green, last year's starting quarterback for the Chiefs until he was knocked out of a game with a concussion. Upon returning to the line-up, Green never looked quite the same, struggling mightily to get the offense going.

Is Green going to continue to be gun-shy in Miami? My guess is yes. Four times in the coming season he will be facing the defenses of the Jets and Patriots, neither of which will be the balm for his pains.

Michelle Wie...Nuke Laloosh's long lost love child?

Let me preface my next rant by pointing out that I don't think of golf as a sport. Does it require athletic ability? Yes. Is it a sport? No. Who really believes that John Daly runs to get in shape in order to walk the links?

I have a hard time thinking of anything as a sport in which the caddies do all the heavy lifting.

Now...onto the rant proper...

What has Michelle Wie done to merit the amount of coverage or the sheer dollar value of her endorsements? How long before the six foot 17-year old goes from "phenom" to bust?

Evidently Wie, who has been going backwards in her development because of her and her handler's insistence that she qualify for the men's tour, was in danger of being disqualified from the LPGA Tour for the remainder of this season due to her poor play.

Let's compare Wie to Anna Kournikova, a favorite for being referred to as a bust.

Kournikova only played until 21 when injuries had finally taken their toll and she made the business decision to make money on her face. At the time she had accomplished the followng; 209-129 overall in singles play, achieved a ranking as high as 8th, won two Australian Open Doubles titles, was bounced in the semi's at Wimbledon, had 16 WTA (doubles) titles, and was ranked number one in doubles in 1999. Not bad for a bust.

Wie - was briefly ranked second amongst women golfers in 2006, has finished third in major championships three times and second once, and has no professional wins. Wie has been wildly erratic, losing amateur championships as recently as 2004 to less highly touted golfers.

Let's face it, right now this is Happy Gilmore before Chubbs' tutelage...only in tall, female form.

She might have an immense amount of talent, but until she and her handlers worry more about developing the talent than they do about the next sponsor's exemption (anyone else notice that this is how she always seems to get into an event...not because she has qualified for it?), then all she will ever be is an attractive young lady with a freakish swing from the tee.

At least Kournikova won in doubles. Nobody ever seems to mention that.

Pats back in the news

With training camp upon us, the Patriots are back in the news. There have been multiple articles and what a good citizen Randy Moss has been thus far (come back to me when he's been with the team for significantly more than six weeks), how versatile Adalius Thomas is, and of course, the Patriots' very own "Where's Waldo" situation...delusional cornerback Asante Samuel.

In April, around draft time, Samuel told the NFL Network “We have a difference of opinion in my value. They think I’m worth one price and the other teams think I’m worth a lot more. If a long-term deal can’t be done at fair numbers for me and New England, then I want to be traded.”

I'd like to know what NFL team gave Samuel any sort of numbers to go by as to what his worth is. It's my understanding that no team has talked to Samuel or his agent. And while I acknowledge that I don't know if the agent has talked to anyone or not, I do know that these things tend to get out, and there hasn't been a sniff of a rumor.

I will say this one more time - Samuel had one great year. One. He has not been as consistent as Clemens, or had as good a career as Bly. At least twice during the season, if the opposing QB had pump faked and gone to Samuel's man, the passes would have gone for touchdowns.

Samuel wants to get paid, by all reports, as the best corner in the game. As much as I like him, I don't think he's in the top five (for last season, yes, he was one of the five best...but I need to see more than one great season to call him elite. There have been a lot of one season wonders in the NFL).

A shout out to Joe Andruzzi
I have been remiss in addressing this. Get well soon big guy. May the docs at Dana Farber get you through the lymphoma quickly.

Just a quick note about Andruzzi. The former Patriots guard, to some extent, became the face of the 2001 Patriots after 9/11. With Bledsoe injured, and a then little known Tom Brady at the helm, the most memorable images from that regular season, outside of Bledsoe being put in the hospital by Mo Lewis, were of the Andruzzi brothers clad in Pats jerseys and firefighting gear at the center of the field tipping their helmets to the crows, and of Joe Andruzzi, the first Patriot to take the field after 9/11, charging out of the tunnel, American flags in hand.

The man is a lunch pail, blue collar type player who, in his prime, set the tone for the Patriots line.

May you be beating on a defensive lineman somewhere soon, big guy. The NFL needs guys like you.

Money spent

As always, going into the season, the Yankees had the highest payroll in baseball. If and when Roger Clemens joins the team, the Bronx Bombers will have a payroll in excess of $200 million dollars.

While the Yankees have shown some life of late, the 2007 edition has to be considered one of the biggest busts in the majors to date this season. With only 24 wins, so far the Boss has payed about $8 million per victory this season. If the Yankees stay on their current pace, they will win 72 games at an approximate cost of $2.78 million per victory.

The arch-rival Red Sox, on the other hand, are on a pace to win 109 games with a $143 million payroll, or a cost of $1.31 million.

Do I think either team will finish the season with those records? No. I believe the Sox won't be quite that good in the end, and I doubt the Yankees will be that bad. However, that is the current pace of each team, so that is what I am going to work with.

Interesting coincidence - only three division leaders are the highest paid team in their respective divisions. Only the Mets, Angels, and Dodgers lead theirs.

Currently, the respective places of the other highest paid per division - Yankees (4th, 24-30), Chicago White Sox (4th, 24-27), Chicago Cubs (4th, 23-31).

I guess it goes to show that it's not how much is spent rather than how it's spent. For a breakdown of this season's team salaries, take a gander below.

The following numbers, ganked from ESPN.com represent salaries heading into the year -

1. NY Yankees	195,229,045
2. Boston	143,123,714
3. NY Mets	116,115,819
4. Chicago Sox	109,290,167
5. LA Angels	109,251,333
6. LA Dodgers	108,704,524
7. Seattle	106,516,833
8. Chicago Cubs	99,936,999
9. Detroit	95,180,369
10. Baltimore	95,107,808
11. San Francisco	90,469,056
12. St. Louis	90,286,823
13. Atlanta	89,492,685
14. Philadelphia	89,368,213
15. Houston	87,759,500
16. Oakland	79,938,369
17. Toronto	79,925,600
18. Milwaukee	71,986,500
19. Minnesota	71,439,500
20. Cincinnati	69,654,980
21. Texas	68,818,675
22. Kansas City	67,366,500
23. Cleveland	61,289,667
24. San Diego	58,235,567
25. Colorado	54,424,000
26. Arizona	52,067,546
27. Pittsburgh	38,604,500
28. Washington	37,347,500
29. Florida	30,507,000
30. Tampa Bay	24,124,200
Note: Team salaries do not represent full team payroll. Number listed includes current salary for all players currently on the roster.

Headhunters, A-Rods, and Yanks....oh my

A few quick observations...

Interesting that even Joe Torre is throwing A-Rod under the bus for that yell rounding third during the game in Toronto. Then he's calling Mike Lowell's plastering of Robinson Cano clean...which it was. If a player wanders into the base path to make a play, the do so at their own peril.

Schilling is beginning to look like he could still be an effective pitcher for someone, just not as the ace...maybe as the number three or four guy. The one thing that bothered me about yesterday's game was that when he got in trouble, it was whenever he shook off Varitek and he looked tentative or uncertain about what he wanted to do.

After a slow start, Dustin Pedroia has raised his batting average to .333. As of April 20th, he was hitting .158, now he's likely to be named rookie of the month for May and (if he keeps this up) put his name into the hat along with fellow Sox rookie Hideki Okajima as a candidate for rookie of the year.

More bad for the Yanks - Doug Mientkiewicz starts to show signs of coming around at the plate, then almost has his head taken off because Derek Jeter feels he has to make a highlight reel pirouette to get the out at first with Mike Lowell coming down the baseline. The errant throw caused the Yankee first baseman to make a lunge at the ball that took him into the basepath and, in turn, put his head at ground zero for a collision with Lowell's thigh.

It was a scary couple of minutes as Mientkiewicz lay limp on the ground. As I watched, and the Yankees trainers sat him upright to treat him, I couldn't believe the butt-headed incompetence of the training staff.

The Yank's first basemen was obviously dazed (and his answers therefore shouldn't have been trusted), and there is no way that on the field that the trainer or doctor would be able to determine the extent of possible whiplash, neck, and or upper spinal trauma. Realistically, if for no other reason than precaution, Mientkiewicz's neck should have been immobilized before he was moved, and he should not have been allowed to sit up.

I sincerely hope that you have no serious injuries and that you get well soon, Doug. May the people at Mass General be taking good care of you.

And finally, looks like the Rocket is grounded for at least one more start and will not be available to the Yankees until next weekend's interleague play against the Pirates. The reason cited? A fatigued groin. Can anyone out there tell me if they have ever heard of this problem before, porn star Ron Jeremy not withstanding.

I spy with my little eye...a Vick

According to an AP report that hit early this morning, the prosecutor investigating the Michael Vick case has linked Vick to dogfighting and charges are imminent. According to prosecutor Gerald Poindexter, eyewitnesses to Vick at dogfights in Virginia have voluntarily come forward to finger Vick.

Suddenly Vick is in a lot more hot water, and things could really be on the verge of finally falling apart for the talented player who has lived on the edge for quite some time. As I watch this case quickly unfold, I can't help but think that this isn't going to end well for him.

Speaking of football...
It appears that Chad Brown might be on the verge of returning to the Patriots. If moved back outside to his natural position, Brown might provide the Patriots with decent depth.

If he does indeed come back, it would make sense for Belichick to move him to the outside for other reasons as well - he struggled when moved to the inside, and with the five linebackers in front of him, there are three, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, and Adalius Thomas, better suited to the inside.

A new challenger to enter the arena...
According to reports, there's a new football league on the horizon - the United Football League, tentatively scheduled to begin play in August of 2008. Even though it's looking at kicking off during the NFL season, the league is reportedly looking at a smart design for competition.

The UFL is looking at setting up teams in eight markets that currently have no NFL team such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Antonio (though nothing is written in stone...except for maybe Vegas). Games will be scheduled for Fridays so that it avoids competition with the NFL's Thursday and Sunday games as well as college football's Saturday heavy schedule.

For the real football hardcore, that means five straight days of professional or college football from Thursday through Monday. For the NFL, this means little except that they might accelerate their plans on getting a team into the L.A. market.

The league will face a lot of issues as a start-up. The last league to successfully challenge the NFL for any sort of market share did so before the big television contracts, however, it's a loophole in the laws that govern the NFL's broadcasting that the league hopes to take advantage of. According to one report:

The UFL plans to exploit the 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act, which prohibits the NFL from televising games on most autumn Friday nights. The United Football League the U.F.L. plans to make a smaller deal with a cable network like USA, TNT or Comcast’s versus network.

This might be a smarter move than the USFL in the 1980's or the more recently failed XFL which tried for spring league football, competing with the more established fandoms of baseball, not to mention for ratings with playoff basketball.

Their bigger problem will be competing for talent with the NFL. The only way I can see that happening is if the UFL offers guaranteed contracts with the caveat that if the league folds, then no monies are guaranteed. Otherwise what incentive will talented players have to go to a smaller league with no established stars, no established fan base, and what is likely to be a much smaller television contract?

How serious is the upstart league? Investment banker Bill Hambrecht, an owner of one of the original USFL franchises has already put up money along with his partner Tim Armstrong, a senior executive at Google, and basketball mogul Mark Cuban has already dipped his feet in as an owner.

It's certainly bound to be an interesting ride.

Yanks at Sox...
I was going to preview this weekend, talk about match-ups, best-case/worst-case scenarios and all, then it occurred to me...there's no reason to talk about how far ahead of the Yankees the Sox could be at the end of the weekend. Really.

Until the Yankees show that they can string more than two games together without immediately losing three, there's not point in talking about them in relation to any sort of run at first place.

Yes, they are that bad right now (in spite of their win last night). They are at a point where they merit far less consideration from the press than they are currently receiving - do the Texas Rangers or the Kansas City Royals get this sort of press? No? Until the Yankees pull ahead of Baltimore and Toronto, I think (unless something else goes monumentally wrong for them) I will begin to focus more on the Orioles and the Jays in the AL East.

Finding new ways to lose...

Somehow, amidst all their other problems, the Yankees have found ways to squander quality starts. It seems when their hitting was working in April, their pitching fell apart, then in May, when they got the occasional quality start (I hesitate to say their pitching has turned around because most of their quality starts have come from one pitcher), the hitting falls apart.

Last night Aaron Hill of the Blue Jays stole home to tie the game at 2-2 before the Jays went on to win 3-2. Now, I understand that Pettitte is lefty, but you have to at least check the runner at third.

As the Yankees free-fall to 14.5 back along with the Devil Rays, the Jays and the Orioles have strung together a few wins to creep closer to the .500 mark. Currently those two teams are three games and two games under .500 in the win column each...the Yanks? Eight.

As recently as Sunday the Yanks were at least tied with the Sox offensively...something that could give some hope that if the pitching turned it around, that maybe there could be a legitimate run at the wild card. Since Sunday the Yankees team batting average has dropped from .276 to .270. The Sox have gone up a point to .277.

The Yankees were supposed to have the new Murderer's Row lineup...it's on what many prognosticators based their predictions of Yankee success. They haven't been bad scoring runs (258, good for fifth in the majors), but they still languish behind Detroit (289), Cleveland (276), and Boston (276) in the American League. Their 54 home runs trail Boston (55) and Toronto (62) in the AL East.

There are a number of other offensive categories in which the Yankees are trailing other teams, but the important stats still are related to pitching. Only one team in the entire AL East lags behind the Yankees in ERA (4.61)...the Devil Rays (5.55). The others ERA's, coincidentally enough, reflect in the standings - 1. Red Sox (3.62), 2. Orioles (4.13), 3. Blue Jays (4.34).

Possibly most telling of all, and most overlooked - the Yankees are dead last in the majors with only three saves. Even Tampa Bay is in double digits with saves. The only other team with fewer than ten saves is the Texas Rangers who are currently fighting it out with the Royals for the worst record in baseball (teams the Yankees are only two games ahead of in the win column).

As strange as it is to say it after a decade, I would say that the Jays and O's are worth more worry as a Sox fan than the Yankees are for remainder of this season.

Nuggets from the weekend

RIP
Patriots back up defensive end Marquise Hill died this weekend in a jet ski accident on Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain. Hill was 24.

I am not going to wax poetic about how Hill was a supremely talented football player who was on the verge of a break-out year. He wasn't. He was a second round draft pick who was likely entering his make or break year with the Patriots. He worked hard, but in three seasons managed to play in only 13 games.

There's a chance there was a great player beneath all that hard work that would have surfaced in a system other than the one played by the Patriots, that sort of thing happens all the time. As it is, we'll never know.

Unfortunately, the young defensive end is now a cautionary tale as he and his friend went jet skiing sans life-jackets and Hill ended up paying a terrible price.

Hill, a native of New Orleans, according to reports had dedicated much of his free-time to the rebuilding efforts of the hurricane ravaged city. Also according to reports, Hill's final act was to make sure that the childhood friend with whom he was on the lake, was able to grasp a nearby pylon, saving her life.

Hill's death comes in an odd NFL off-season during which Hill is the third active player under the age of 25 to meet an untimely demise. The other two were Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams who was shot on New Year's Eve and back-up running back Damien Nash who collapsed after a charity basketball game.

The longer it goes, the worse it looks...
According to an AP report that hit the wires over the weekend an individual termed as "a reliable" police informant has placed Vick at the scene of at least one dog fight laying down money on dogs. The informant claims that his own dog beat Vick's dog in a fight.

The report goes on to say that the Surry County, VA district attorney is preparing charges, but it does not note whether or not Vick will be included in those charges.

In previous reports at least one neighbor has placed Vick at the property that he claims to have never been at (in spite of owning it), and now someone is placing Vick at a dogfight. I wonder how the Falcons are enamored with their second string quarterback, because it seems a strong possibility that they're going to be using him a lot this year.

A note on the AL East...
Currently the Yankees reside 13.5 games behind the Red Sox and 7 games under .500. This has been the lead story on ESPN and a number of different sports pages. Almost none of these stories have noted that the Yankees are tied with the Devil Rays for last place in the East, nor do most note that both the Orioles and the Blue Jays are ahead of the Yanks, and both teams are beginning to play decent baseball.

The Yankees on the other hand are playing like they're in beer-league softball. They look old, worn down, and reliant on the long-ball for most of their offense.

The fact that sports writers are not writing about the Orioles or the Blue Jays is something of an injustice. Not a huge one, as both teams are battling to get back to .500, and the second place Orioles are only two games ahead of the Yankees, but that still puts them two games closer to the AL leading Red Sox, and two games closer to the wild card.

Outside of the Red Sox, the teams in the AL East have to be setting their sites on the wild card. In about one month we will be halfway through the season. If the season ended at the All-Star break, this is the ground that teams would have to make up -

Detroit Tigers: 29-21 Wild Card Leader
Seattle Mariners: 25-22, 3 Games back
Chicago W. Sox: 24-22, 4 Games back
Oakland A's: 25-25, 4 Games back
Minnesota Twins: 25-25, 4 Games back
Baltimore Orioles: 24-27, 5.5 Games back
Toronto Blue Jays:23-27, 6 Games back
New York Yanks: 21-28, 7.5 Games back

What do the teams at the top of the list have in common? Almost all have some quality starters. Not starter...starters. The teams towards the bottom of that list? The Yankees have the lowest innings pitched per start in the entire league, the Blue Jays only now got their ace back from the DL and their closer hasn't pitched an inning this year, and the Orioles closer who was so dominant last year has been pinata-like this year.

The Dirty Dozen...and a half

Twelve reasons the Yankees are languishing behind the Red Sox

Currently the Red Sox are leading the AL East by 11.5 games over the Baltimore Orioles, 12 over the Toronto Blue Jays, and 12.5 over New York. As the Yankees were a chic pick to finish atop the AL East amongst many of the sports writers out there and the two teams have been inexorably linked since Babe Ruth was sold to the Yankees, I want to address twelve reasons why the Bronx Bombers find themselves twelve-plus games back.

1. Keeping up with the Soxes: In order to keep up with Boston's personnel moves, George Steinbrenner mandated trading the farm for his own "OWGA" (Old White Guy Ace), in acquiring Randy Johnson (in order to keep up with the Schilling acquisition). Problem was, Schilling had more left than Johnson, and Brian Cashman worked hard to replenish the depleted farm system. Unfortunately, between injuries and youth, the now replenished farm system is not yet ready for prime time.

2. Health: This goes back to the OWGA's, and to the now fired strength and conditioning guy. The Bommahs have had injuries to key starters in the field and in the rotation - Johnny Damon, Jorge Posada, Mike Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang...the list goes on. While not all have gone on the DL, it has resulted in sub-par play, and sub-par starting pitching.

3. The Yankees Dirty Dozen: When Roger Clemens joins the rotation in about a week, it will make the twelfth starter the Yanks have had in the rotation this year. Of the Yankees' 22 wins on the season, only 14 have come from the starters (for perspective, the Red Sox' Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka combined have 14 wins). Their best starter has been Andy Pettitte against whom the AL is batting at a .268 clip. How long could his sub-3.00 ERA last if he's not fooling the batters.

4. Abreu being Abreu: Last year for two months after being acquired by the Phillies, Bobby Abreu had (arguably) the best two months of his career. Talk to Phillies fans...the real Bobby Abreu has just stood up.

5. The Bullpen stops here: If there has been one historical criticism of Joe Torre, even in the team's World Series years, it has been his handling of the pitching staff, particularly when and how to use his relievers. Unfortunately his starting pitching has been so bad that he has had to use his bullpen to excess.

6. The Rocket is the Answer: Never mind that Allen Iverson is the answer (and that I have no idea then what the question is), The Yankees answer to their pitching woes is to sign a 44 year old power pitcher who was barely able to maintain a 4.00 ERA during his last go-around in the AL, averaged only six innings per game in the weaker NL, and is two years older than the last time he pitched in the AL...well, you get where I'm going. I guess the bullpen will live by the "no rest for the wicked" credo.

7. Hideous No Mo: Ever since 2004 lights out closer Mo Rivera has been a crap shoot against the Red Sox, blowing saves in the early season series this year against the Sox who have a higher batting average as a team against Mariano than any other team in the majors.

8. Unity/Chemistry: Maybe a little overrated in baseball, but the fact of the matter is that Jeter doesn't like A-Rod, management is unhappy with Giambi, reliever Kyle Farnsworth doesn't like Clemens' special treatment...and those are just the situations we know. Steinbrenner went out and bought a lot of talented, shiny baubles that might not necessarily all fit together. He lacks that Alex Cora/Dave Roberts-type guy off the bench that becomes a fan favorite not because he's talented, but because he's the hard-nosed get my uniform dirty guy that makes things happen when he gets in the game.

9. The Sox Future Rotation: Right now the core of the Red Sox future is making the future the present...Matsuzaka and Beckett (the same number of wins as all Yankees starters combined) are the cornerstones of the future pitching staff, and right now the Sox have top rated pitching prospects in excess at AA and AAA ball. The Yankees have Wang who suddenly seems unsure of himself, and an injured Philip Hughes. Sure, Beckett is on the DL, but this season they will be getting Jonathan Lester as their fifth guy in the rotation, and will be faced with who to trade and who to keep amongst pitchers named Delcarmen, Buchholz, Gabbard, and at least two others that buzz is only now beginning to surface about.

10. Quality Starts: Even when the Sox starters are getting roughed up early as they have been lately, they are still making it into, and typically to at least the end of the sixth inning. The Yankees have only recently even raised the average number of innings from their starters to five innings per start.

11. Bench contributions: See some of what was written under the heading Unity, but also consider the following: The Red Sox and the Yankees are currently tied with a .277 team batting average. The Yankees have Posada, Jeter and A-Rod among the top five in hitting. A-Rod is showcasing his power like never before for his contract opt-out. The Red Sox still haven't seen a hot Manny Ramirez, JD Drew is struggling with a batting average hovering around .220, their lead-off guy, Julio Lugo, is struggling as much this year as Coco Crisp was last year...yet their offense right now is keeping pace with the Yankees offense.

12. One Full Run: The Yankees team ERA is more than one full run higher than the Red Sox. The Sox are in the top five in the league in team ERA, the Yankees are in the bottom five. It doesn't matter how good your offense is if your pitching can't hold a lead.

The press and the Internet

A dangerous combination if ever there was one.

Within the last week news outlets reported failed drug tests by Bengals trouble child Chris Henry and Yankees lightning rod Jason Giambi. Both reports turned out to be false.

As regulars here may have noticed, my only reference to either incident was a note that Henry "might have more trouble coming his way." Like many bloggers and reporters, I will jump on a controversial story, but this time I stayed away. I couldn't tell you why.

I can say that the Internet and news stations televising 24/7 have done more damage to the quality of reporting than anything else.

Print journalists are so desperate to get a scoop, that sometimes corroboration falls to the way side. Let's face it - it's difficult to scoop anything now because the Internet and television provide close to instant access to the news. Print journalism is slowly becoming obsolete, although not slowly enough for the newspaper companies.

For those of you that believe that the news mediums are still working - I have a question; are you seeking news, or are you seeking entertainment?

I pose this question due to the three weeks of coverage of the run away bride story that didn't feel like it was going away, and the coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's death. Let me tell you how NASA PR people breathed a sigh of relief when all the cameras turned to the Bahamas...me, I still want to know how the raving stalker passed the military psyche profiles to be picked for the space program.

Now back to my regularly scheduled sports coverage...

After his last two starts, I would say someone needs to remind Curt Schilling that he's not throwing batting practice.

Clemens was unimpressive against AA ball last night, giving up 3 earned in five and a third. By all accounts (from major league scouts) he was out-pitched by Red Sox prospect and Portland Sea Dogs pitcher Clay Buchholz. According to an article by Rob Bradford at the Boston Herald, a major league scout said, "we need one game to win the division and you’re giving me a choice between starting (Buchholz) or Clemens, I’m taking (Buchholz) off of what I saw tonight."

Rumors have circulated that Clemens next start will be with the Yanks. From the scouting reports - I wouldn't hold my breath that it will be a quality start.

Rim shots

Arbitrarily speaking...
While it sounds like Floyd Landis had a good day in court on Monday, and it has been revealed that at least one lab tech was aware that the "anonymous" sample being tested belonged to Landis, I believe this still could go either way. I base this mostly on what I have seen from other arbitrators (for example, I still don't understand how an arbitrator was going to find in favor of Terrell Owens when he was trying to get out of his contract with the 49ers).

Dog eat Dawg...
The Washington Redskins released a statement "on behalf of" Clinton Portis apologizing for his comments to a Virginia media outlet regarding Michael Vick and dog fighting. After listening to Portis' tirade, it was pretty obvious that the statement did not come from him - he's no where near as well spoken as the statement would make him out to be.

The meat of the Redskins released statement read, “I want to make it clear I do not take part in dog fighting or condone dog fighting in any manner.” Portis' words to a Norfolk news station, “I don’t know if he was fighting dogs or not, but it’s his property; it’s his dogs. If that’s what he wants to do, do it.” Doesn't sound like the same dude to me.

Gotta admit, wouldn't be surprised to hear that police wanted to talk to Portis at some point regarding the dogfights that he seems to know so much about on the back roads of Mississippi.

At best...
For New Yorkers, the Yankees win tonight and come away with a series win against the Sox and close the gap back to 9.5 games. The Sox finish off the road trip with three against Texas before returning to Fenway for three with the Tribe before hosting the Yankees for three.

The Bomahs - they host the Angels and then go to Toronto for three before arriving at Fenway.

Just a guess, but with the way the Yankees are playing I would be surprised to see them do any better than 3-3 during the next six games (tonight notwithstanding). I could easily see them drop two to the Angels and at least one to the Jays. At the same time, I can't really see the Sox doing any worse than 3-3, and think they will go 4-2 between now and next week when they see the Yankees again.

Say Ow!
Junior's back in the fold with the Pats, giving them the needed depth at linebacker. Rumor has it that Vinny Testaverde could be returning, Belichick has already said that Troy Brown has a place with the team if healthy, and Chad Brown might be returning (I would guess that they wouldn't use him inside like they did last time - he's just not suited to it).

Sox score 19 to Braves 20 and take 2 of 3, and other thoughts...

Game one - 13-3 Sox
Game two - 14-0 Braves
Game Three- 6-3 Sox

Just goes to show you, it's not how many you score in a series, it's when you score them.

Last Call?
Tonight could be the start of the Yankees last real chance to get going - but to do that, it will take a sweep of the Red Sox in the Bronx. The way the Yankees are playing right now, I would say at best that the Yanks will gain one game over the course of the next three. At worst...well, they walk away another three games down.

It might still be early in the season, but if they don't get going before Clemens makes his re-entry to the Bronx, then The Rocket's return will be less NASA re-entry and more of a backyard bottle rocket.

Stupid is as stupid does...
Since NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell brought the hammer down on Pacman Jones and Bengals wideout Chris Henry (who might have more trouble coming his way), the following boneheads have been in the news for all the wrong reasons - Falcons QB Michael Vick (links to dogfighting), Jets kick returner Justin Miller (assault), troubled Bengals linebacker AJ Nicholson (domestic assault, released by Bengals), Jaguars cornerback Ahmad Carroll (drugs and weapons).

Two of the players, as noted, were released, the others face potential suspensions. It begs a question - What percentage of the players in the NFL, particularly the...bad decision makers...fail to make the connection between stupid behavior and the loss of their paycheck? I guess we're on the verge of finding out.

And on a vaguely related subject - Clinton Portis, you need to just keep your mouth shut. Vick possibly being involved in illegal activities isn't The Man bringing him down, it's Vick potentially making really boneheaded decisions that could get him sent to jail.

Just because you know places in Mississippi where you can go to enjoy a dogfight, it doesn't make it either right or legal.

Musical chairs...
The annual MLB salary dump is looming and the rumors are just beginning to fly about what team will attempt to trade away their big contacts in an effort to build for the future. The important questions for Sox fans really are who is selling and what are the Sox buying? Pitching or hitting? It all really depends on Theo Epstein's plans for the stretch run and for next year.

If the assumption is that the Sox and Curt Schilling are parting ways at the end of the year, it is feasible that the Boston could look to replace the ace from within their own system. The brain trust has seen both Jon Lester and Kason Gabbard experience big-league success, and in a division with the Yankees, the fact that the two are lefties makes them major commodities.

The rumor right now, however, is that the Sox are interested in pursuing 26-year old Oakland pitcher Rich Harden. If the Sox get him, what does that do for Lester's rehab schedule? Does he spend more time in the minors? Does he become the bait to land the more established Harden?

If the trade happens, next year's rotation could look like this -
Beckett
Matsuzaka
Wakefield
Harden
Lester

If the trade doesn't happen, don't be surprised to see Gabbard and Lester in the rotation.

Think before you speak...
The other day I heard an athlete, who shall remain nameless, say, "when you play basketball, you play to win."

Well, I guess that explains why I couldn't get the college scouts to watch me when I played high school football...they didn't come because I wasn't playing basketball on the gridiron, and thus, wasn't playing to win. Oy.

In footy news...
Metro season has started. For those of you unfamiliar, Metro leagues are kind of like teams set up within a team. The Baltimore/Washington Eagles has three Metro Teams - The Baltimore Bohemians (the team I play for), Washington, and Northern Virginia. When we play Philadelphia, New York, etc., members from each of the Metro teams play.

The Metro leagues allow us to work on our skills in a competitive game environment.

This past weekend marked the second week of metro season, and the first game for Bohs.

Final score -
Baltimore 14.9-93
Washington DC 4.4-28

I will post more of a game summary and Metro standings later in the week.

A few brief observations on the AL East...

The Sawx...
Julian Tavarez gave the Red Sox only his second quality start of the season and it came against a tough Detroit Tigers team - 7 innings pitched, one earned run. A few more of these and he might preserve his job as the fifth starter.

Hideki Okajima is on his way right now to making a serious run at the Rookie of the Year award. Yesterday he had a hold in the early game, and then saved the late game. He hasn't given up a run since his first appearance of the season.

With a ten game lead in the win column over the rest of the AL East, right now the Sox biggest enemy could be themselves. Currently the Sox have a .700 winning percentage and a 9.5 game lead over the second place Yankees. If complacency seeps into the heads of some of these guys, they set themselves on cruise control, that could be very dangerous to their large lead.

That said, the Sox have mounted their assault on the rest of the AL East with their staring outfield looking like this at the plate - Manny Ramirez (.248), Coco Crisp (.233), JD Drew (.250). What happens when Ramirez and Drew get hot?

Da Bahmahs...
The Yankees braintrust announces the signing of baseball's oldest pitcher during a game to give the team a shot in the arm. Over the last ten games they are 4-6. Wonder what would have happened without that shot in the arm.

Clemens hasn't joined the team, Joe Torre and GM Brian Cashman have assured the press that there will be no problems regarding Clemens' special treatment in the locker room, yet reliever Kyle Farnsworth has already complained publicly about the fact that Clemens won't really be part of the team, because he will just be coming in on his days to pitch.

This is a team that's not out of it yet, it is still early. But that's not the sort of thing that inspires a person to believe the team is going on a run at the Sox anytime soon.

On top of that, the Yankees have a tough enough stretch over the next ten days that they could feasibly be 14 games back by June 1 if they don't get their act together.

The Devil Rays are in the details...
This team is showing some talent and determination. What they aren't showing, a quarter of the way through the season, is the pitching needed to make a legitimate run at the post-season. To be fair, neither are the Yankees, Blue Jays, or Orioles.

If ownership has the cajones and pockets to keep this team together, in another year or two, with maybe one quality veteran in the rotation, they might be a contender for the wild-card. If one or two of the young arms in the rotation gets hot, they might have an outside shot this year, although I would be surprised.

Everybody's talkin' about the bird...
And the word is disappointment. Blue Jays GM JP Ricciardi assembled a line-up that was supposed to compete with the Sox and Yanks. A quarter of the way into the season it appears that his plan was about halfway successful - At 18-22, the team is just under .500, and a half-game behind the Yanks.

To be fair to Ricciardi, his team has dealt with injuries in the same way the Yankees have - which is to say that both teams had little depth behind the people who have been injured, and that lack of depth has taken its toll on both teams.

From the bottom looking up...
Former Braves pitching guru and current manager Sam Perlazzo currently has a staff with a 4.46 ERA. Closer Chris Ray who was practically unhittable last season already has three losses and is sporting a 4.34 ERA over his 18 plus innings.

While still in the thick of the pack in the AL East (only one game behind the second place Yankees), a cellar finish is not out of the question for a team that started the season with high hopes.

Ale and athletics...

As the Maryland Columnist for the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, I attended this past weekend's Maryland Brewer's Spring Fest at Harry Grove Stadium in Frederick, MD. Seeing as Harry Grove is home to the Baltimore Orioles' class A affiliate Frederick Keys, the entire time I was there I was constantly reminded of the long-standing relationship between the professional athletics and alcohol industries. Incidentally, yes, that is me. To my left (just out of the shot) is the owner of Red Brick Station, a brew-pub in Whitemarsh, just outside of Baltimore (further to the left are people lounging in the bleachers, enjoying the live music - the stage was set up at home plate).

I want to comment on this only because of an off-season controversy wherein MLB granted Daisuke Matsuzaka permission to wear his new Red Sox jersey in an ad for Asahi Beer that had a number of people in an uproar in the United States...also due to the recent death of a Cardinals pitcher, whom I won't bring up again.

As you might be able to tell, I don't mind imbibing on occasion. I actively seek out good beer. I like the fact that my local minor league park also serves beers from both of the area's brew pubs, and I like to have a beer while watching the Sox or Pats play.

That said, I also believe that there are too many people that take it too far at the games. Believe it or not, I will go to Yankee Stadium in full Red Sox regalia (have done it, last time was for a Derek Lowe playoff loss in 2003) before I would go to the Linc in Philly for a Pats-Eagles game. It's one thing to go to a game and cheer for your team, and even engage in a little bit of banter with fans of the opponents - it's another when families from other areas show up and the children are harassed, cursed at, and sometimes spit on by home-town fans who were drunk at tail-gating parties hours before the game started (this happens all too often, and Philly is not the only place I have read about this happening).

There was a time when that was Foxboro, before the Krafts decided they needed to make the stadium family friendly.

I don't think the cessation of the service of beer is necessarily the answer, and would rather not see that happen. What I would like to see happen is more common sense being applied by fans. This could be a lot to ask from a group whose most intellectual argument on why their team is superior to an opponent is often comprised of the term, "(insert opponent name here) suck!"

The following, sometimes sobering, numbers were compiled from other sources by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (admittedly, a group trying to impose greater limits on alcohol advertising, particularly during sporting events) -

• Alcohol producers spent $991 million on television advertising in 2002 – 60% of that was on sports programming
• Alcohol producers spent $596 million advertising on sports programming in 2002, an increase of more than 22% over 2001
• In 2001 and 2002, Budweiser and Bud Light spent more than 87% of their combined television advertising budgets on sports programming
• Non-beer brands increased spending on sports programs significantly from 2001 to 2002: distilled spirits sports TV spending increased 168%; alcopops increased 138%
• Beer marketers spent $58 million in 2002 for 6,251 ads in college sports programs
• In 2002, alcohol advertising represented 5.3% of all advertising dollars on college sports, compared to only 2.0% of all advertising on television
• In 2002, beer producers spent $27 million advertising on the NCAA basketball tournament, which had as many alcohol ads (939) as the Super Bowl, World Series, College Bowl Games and NFL Monday Night Football combined (925)
• Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors Light and Budweiser accounted for 58% of college sports advertising dollars by the alcoholic-beverage industry in 2002

Pardon my French, but that's a shit-load of money.

So, next time you're at the park, drink smart. If you know you're an unpleasant drunk, don't drink at all. And if you're gonna drink heavy, make sure you have a designated driver...and not the one Steve McNair used.

More quick hits...

From the Big Apple...
From the New York Daily News' Mike Lupica talking with Yankees GM Brian Cashman - "We're better than our record," Cashman said, and then added, "I know that's easy to say. But we've got a lot of season left to prove it."

From a one time New York icon - Bill Parcells used to say "You are what your record says you are."

If the season ended today, the Yankees would be a losing team. No more. No less. Just a losing team. They wouldn't be better than that, they wouldn't be worse - they would just be 17-19.

There is time for that to change, but the Bronx Bombers have dug themselves a deep hole to get out of.

Pink Floyd...
The arbitration hearing that Floyd Landis has been preparing for got underway yesterday at Pepperdine University. While the opening day was filled with bad blood and contentious statements/sentiment, Landis took the time to meet with the press and express his confidence in his case.

As I have said before, I am presuming neither guilt nor innocence in this case, however, I am interested in hearing USADA's explanations in regards to utilizing a lab that has had historic problems in handling its specimens and following properly established testing procedures. I'm also interested in hearing the scientific reasoning on how Landis' epitestosterone levels could have such a dramatic spike for only one day.

I have a feeling that either way that the arbitrator rules, there might be some reform in how the system is handled in the future.

Wait until next week...
That's what officials involved in Pacman Jones' appeal of his season long suspension are saying about when the ruling on the appeal will be made public. I'm anxious to see if Goodell sticks to his guns, or if he shortens the suspension.

Some thoughts on sports in the aftermath of a brewfest...

Getting some distance...
Trying to resist the feeling that is starting that it could be a pretty special season in the Back Bay this year. Boston's six run ninth, the Mother's Day Massacre of the Baltimore Orioles had that sort of magic feel that the Patriots had during the Super Bowl run when Troy Brown was playing nickel for them.

36 games into the season and the Red Sox have the best winning percentage in the majors. Arch-nemesis Yankees? Right now they're tenth overall in the 14-team American League, beating out only Tampa Bay, Toronto, Texas, and Kansas City.

The Sox? They're doing their damage even with five regulars batting below .260 - Julio Lugo (.259), JD Drew (.257), Manny Ramirez (.250), Dustin Pedroia (.247), and Coco Crisp (.221).

The only two negatives from the weekend - Josh Beckett missing out on getting his eighth straight win, and Beckett possibly missing his next start due to a cut on one of the fingers of his throwing hand.

Smoked...
Ricky Williams is done. Even if he gets reinstated, who is going to take a chance on a 30+ running back with a pot habit?

A matter of time...
If Julian Tavarez keeps pitching like he has, it's only a matter of time before they replace him with Jon Lester. Tavarez has been the week link in what has otherwise been the best rotation in baseball. The Sox fifth starter has had only one start in which he has lasted at least six innings and gave up less than three earned runs.

The result, a 1-4 record with a 6.60 ERA. The next worst amongst the starters - Daisuke Matsuzaka with a 4-2 record and a 4.80 ERA. The others, Tim Wakefield (4-3, 1.79), Curt Schilling (4-1, 3.63), Beckett (7-0, 2.66). Total - Sox starters account for 20 wins and 10 losses. Tavarez accounts for 40 percent of the losses and less than 10 percent of the wins.

Even the bullpen is 5-1, accounting for 40 percent of the Sox total 25 wins. I have a hunch the leash Tavarez is on is getting shorter.

Sometimes the juvenile in me just takes control...

The best headline I have seen in weeks came from the associated press...

"Yankees' Wang hit hard, Red Sox rough up Halladay"

Just take the first half of that on it's own for a minute...

Yankees' Wang hit hard

Think about it.

Yeah, there you go. So, what was that editor thinking? That could only have been made worse by "hit hard," being replaced by the term, "pounded."

Guess it might just be that kind of year for the Yanks.

Quick hits...

Stripped...
Pacman Jones gets his appeal today. Of course it has come out that the night before his last meeting with Roger Goodell Jones was at a New York strip club.

He's appealing the suspension based on the idea that the punishment is unprecedented. His lawyers need to look a little deeper into league history. In 1963 Detroit Lions Paul Hornung and Alex Karras both served season long suspensions for gambling on the game.

Spitting the bit...
The Yankees had an opportunity to move above .500 for the first time in I don't know how long this season (...maybe since the first week?). Everything appeared to fall in their favor. They were playing a mediocre Texas squad in the friendly confines of Yankee Stadium. Chien-Ming Wang, last year's ace, was on the mound against a pitcher who's ERA was somewhere north of 6.00.

What did the Bombers do? They bombed. Wang gave up seven runs in less than seven innings, and then the bullpen gave up another seven leading to a 14-2 loss in the Bronx. Currently they are half a game below .500 and a season high seven games behind the Red Sox.

Sure, the cavalry is on its way, but will it arrive in time?

USADA is losing cred...
According to an AP report:

Floyd Landis claims the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's lead attorney approached his lawyer offering "the shortest suspension they'd ever given an athlete" if Landis provided information that implicated Lance Armstrong for doping.

This calls into question why USADA's rep failed to show for the test of the B sample recently (Landis' reps could only be present at the World Anti-Doping Agency's test of the reserve sample if USADA's reps were present).

If the doping agencies are collaborating to go after Armstrong, whom WADA president Dick Pound views as his own personal white whale, it just makes this whole thing smell like a set-up in order to get Armstrong's one time domestique to offer up...well, anything that might implicate the seven-time Tour-du-France champ. USADA officials have implied that the allegation is ridiculous, however, it would appear that the offer came through Landis' lawyer, and I have a hard time buying that Landis' lawyer would risk his license in a gambit that could potentially have him in front of legal ethics boards with his license at stake.

It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

Random thoughts from a random mind...

Who let the dog out...
Even with plausible deniability involved, it seems that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is seriously considering suspending Michael Vick anyway. According to a report from Don Banks at Sports Illustrated, Goodell essentially told Vick, "your house, your responsibility."

Personally, I have to admit, in my opinion - and let me stress that last word - Vick is guilty as sin in this, but will manage to avoid legal culpability. The suspension, given the fact that he has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately, I think looms as a very real possibility.

A suspension would certainly be a wake-up call for Vick. The question is, would it work?

Interesting conversation...
In light of Amanda Beard's decision to pose for Playboy, my wife and I had an interesting conversation...particularly in regards to gratuitous nudity and roll models. I won't go into the heavy details, but it lead me to an article regarding the marketability of athletes and women's athletics.

According to a poll of 65 businesses around America by Street & Smith released earlier this year, only Maria Sharapova breaks the top 10 (ninth). Other women to make the list, or be determined marketable:
Michelle Kwan (skating - retired)
Mia Hamm (soccer - retired)
Anna Kournikova (tennis - retired)
Chris Everett (tennis - retired)
Michelle Wie (golf)
Swin Cash (WNBA)
Heather Mitts (soccer)

In recent years others have made the list, such as Venus and Serena Williams, and Gabi Reece, but why such a short list? Is it tied to the lack of popularity of women's sports? Is it tied to something else?

The saying that everyone hears in regards to advertising is "sex sells," yet efforts of the WNBA to make attractive players such as Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson the faces of their franchises don't seem to help draw in the larger fan base that the WNBA has hoped to attract. Is it due to a long standing misperception that the women's locker-room is merely the jock "closet," a haven packed solely with athletic-minded lesbians and a homo-phobic United States stays away?

Is it that women's sports hasn't tried hard enough to market to a lesbian fan base that does indeed exist?

All of these are plausible explanations. But I have one other - it's the markets that women's team sports feel they need to be in. These Joanie-come-lately leagues insist on trying to compete with already established men's teams for the same dollar.

Look where the WNBA has situated their teams - New York, Seattle, Detroit, Houston, etc. Many of those teams are in markets where they are competing with Major League Baseball's longer established Yankees, Mets, Mariners, Tigers, Astros, etc, for the fan dollar. That's not a winning proposition. The reason - the NBA, the WNBA's parent corporation, wanted to be in the biggest television markets.

It might have been wiser, however, to move into the secondary markets. Pensacola, which is a top 45 television market, but has precious little in the way of professional sports, is the home town to the women's football team Pensacola Power. It is one of the few venues for that sport that regularly attracts over 4,000 in attendance for its games. By way of contrast, in their second seasons Pensacola regularly attracted several thousand fans and was covered by the local newspaper, Philadelphia, competing against the Sixers and Flyers (when the two made the playoffs), as well as the Phillies, were lucky to attract 1000.

Yes, the female athletes you see hawking products tend to be the prettiest - lord knows that Kournokova had moments, but was never at the top of the game, never won a major tournament and never ranked higher than eighth, but was at the time the most marketable face in tennis. Not just women's tennis - but tennis as a whole. Even sitting on the sidelines she continues to make millions.

Are there exceptions? Sure - Mia Hamm wasn't the prettiest of the pro-soccer players, but she's not unattractive and she was the best at what she did.

The question all this leads to is - what's the answer? How can women's sports be more marketable and draw bigger crowds? If I could answer that, I'd have a whole lot more money than I do now.

What is Clemens real impact?
Assuming Kei Igawa was still getting used to a new leagues, batters, umpires, etc., it's probably safe to project him for somewhere between eight and eleven wins over the course of the season and about a 5.00 ERA. With a maximum potential of about 23 starts and a move to a tougher league than he pitched in last season, chances are Clemens will produce between ten and fourteen wins with around a 4.00 ERA.

For an additional $26 million (figuring for luxury tax), that's really not much additional bang for the Yankee buck, if all the assumptions above are really true. Also, they can not figure that a 45 year-old pitcher who averaged six innings per game in the weaker National League is going to do the same in the American League...and isn't part of their problem right now their overtaxed bullpen?

Those little things that get into your head and rattle around...

DE-Bearded...

Olympic swimmer and occasional model Amanda Beard evidently will be appearing sans swimsuit in the July issue of Playboy. There is, from our puritanical countrymen and our militaristic feminists, something of an outcry about this.

Dr. Mary Jo Kane, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota, told the New York Daily News, “It used to be that female athletes were portrayed as wholesome, All-American girls. Now you get female athletes in GQ, Playboy and the Swimsuit issue. The result of it is coverage that is very damaging—that trivializes and marginalizes women athletes because it does not give them the respect they deserve as competent athletes.”

So it's okay for an athlete to be wholesome, but not sexy? I understand that Dr. Kane wants these athletes to be taken seriously based on their merits as athletes, but no one should get bashed because that person is comfortable in his or her own skin.

Also, it's not like this is the first female athlete to do so - Australian WNBA star Lauren Jackson, Olympic high jumper Amy Acuff, Olympic figure skater Katarina Witt, and world cup soccer player Brandi Chastain have all been photographed sans clothes (to paraphrase Chastain - she worked really hard for her body, is proud of it, and wanted it recorded). This phenomenon is not limited to female athletes - Olympic diver Greg Louganis posed for Playgirl in 1987. NBA star Alan Houston and baseball player Carlos Delgado have also posed nude, but I don't believe that anyone thinks that has detracted from their athletic accomplishments.

Let's face it, we're not talking about Tonya Harding and the homemade porn tape here.

Personally, I think Playboy should be commended when they actually portray a woman with a strong, healthy, athletic body achieved through hard work and sweat rather than surgery.

Coming up sevens...

Let's just say that Josh Beckett is not the same pitcher this year as he was last year. Right now he's 7-0 with a 2.51 ERA and has given up two home runs. Last year? Thirty-three starts, 36 homers.

What a difference a year makes.

People who are worried about how the Dice-man adjusts from Japan to the American majors should take a look at Beckett who struggled last year. All of you who are worried about Matsuzaka - remember the following...he is still getting used to new umpires, new batters, a new strike-zone, and a new ball size. He'll come around, just don't expect him to dominate this year - but do expect to see flashes.

Not much of a fan but...

I'm not much of a basketball fan, as I'm sure regular readers have figured. I don't watch much, I'm not particularly enamored of any team and...since the early 1990's, I just find that the game has evolved into something I just don't care about. I haven't watched a minute of even the playoffs this year, and I'll usually catch a game or two...this year it's just not catching my interest.

There has been speculation in recent years that it has to do with the fact that there are more black players (roughly 75%) there than in any other league (football is roughly 65%) and the fact that they are more visible and easier to see the "thug life" connection in the blatantly displayed tattoos. I can't help but think if this were true, than hockey would rein supreme.

I think it's a different issue.

I think Michael Jordan initiated the advent of a new business model in how to build a team - find one or two superstars and surround those guys with JAGs (just another guys). Who did Allen Iverson ever have playing with him in Philadelphia that was a superstar (at the time he was with Iverson)? Paul Pierce in Boston? Even the Utah Jazz really only had Karl Malone and John Stockton for years.

I'm not even a basketball fan and I can tell you that the Lakers and the Celtics of the early to mid 80's went much deeper than that. Sure the Celtics had their big three in Larry Bird, Robert Parrish, and Kevin McHale, but they also had Dennis Cowens, Danny Ainge, ML Carr, Bill Walton, and Dennis Johnson - several of which were Hall-of-Famers themselves. The Lakers themselves had the likes of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Bob McAdoo, Byron Scott, and Kurt Rambis.

Personally I think the problem is that they are trying to sell the game as a team sport and so few of the franchises really play as a team, not to mention the fact that there has been a deterioration in certain important skills such as defense (which is as much a reason why Team America hasn't been able to come home with the gold as anything else).

As for the last point - a lot has been made of the other teams around the world playing day in and day out together. It's interesting how that never affected our dream teams until the most recent generations of players.

The weekend round-up...

Ready for launch...
So the Rocket Man has ended up in pin-stripes...big whoop. The Yankees biggest problem right now is getting quality starts out of the front five in the rotation, so they go out and sign 45-year old Roger Clemens to a deal to shore up the starting rotation.

Clemens was good last year, averaging 6 innings per start and a 2.30 ERA in the National League. Clemens will be starting about five starts earlier this year than last, so he could feasibly have 25 starts on the year (although I'm guessing the number will be closer to 20). He's unlikely to have that ERA or last six innings per start in the American League where line-ups tend to be deeper.

Yankees fans who think this is going to be your savior, take note - when Clemens left the AL to pitch with the Astros, his ERA dropped nearly a whole run per nine innings (3.91 to 2.98) and he lost five fewer games. During his stint with the Yankees he averaged a 4.01 ERA and was only as low as 3.51 once. Is he really going to relieve the pressure on the bullpen? Maybe, but I have my doubts.

For that, they need to hope that Mike Mussina can come back and stay off the DL, Andy Pettite doesn't break down from being another year older (and the Yankees needing more out of him and Clemens than the Astros did), and rookie Philip Hughes can fulfill some of the promise he showed before the hamstring injury, they might have a shot at the post-season. And all of that assumes that the stop-gap solutions they currently have in place are able to alleviate some of the bull-pen's current work-load before Clemens is even ready to pitch in the majors, otherwise injuries will begin occurring there. They have already pitched 112+ innings this season to Boston's 75. To put it another way - they've pitched four extra games.

If this pace keeps up, the Yankees bullpen will have pitched 21.6 more games than the Sox pen. That is not a winning formula.

From the "sucks to be him" department...
On Saturday Julian Tavarez had his best game of the year, giving up only two runs to the Twins. Unfortunately he was going against Twins' ace Johann Santana who only gave up one run.

To compound issues, rumors have begun to surface that the Sox are shopping Tavarez to make room for the rehabbing cancer survivor, John Lester, in the hopes of bringing Lester back to the majors by early June.

All of this kind of makes Schilling a cautionary tale. I'm not comparing Schilling to Tavarez. Even at this age, Schilling is a more talented pitcher than Tavarez. What I'm talking about is that you have an older, veteran pitcher on staff, but waiting in the wings are a number of prospects that the Sox have been unwilling to part with. All of those younger prospects have more of that magic term "upside" attached to them than either Schilling or Tavarez, and it's only a matter of time until each are replaced.

I'm not saying that it will happen this year for Schilling...but with three major pitching prospects simmering on the back-burner in Pawtucket, taking his contract negotiations public might not have been his wisest move in recent years.

Taking a couple for the team...
This year's Aussie Rules season got under way with a friendly match against North Carolina in Raleigh. If that was friendly, I'd hate to see how they play teams with whom they were unfriendly. Of course it didn't help that I drove the five hours there and five hours back on the same day.

In all honesty it was one of the more physical games of footy I have been involved in since I started playing back in 1999.

On the plus side...we won by 2, we beat a division one team, we were playing with a bench of three for the first half and an injury reduced that to a bench of two against a team that was sporting about a dozen reserves. The final was 68-66. Still, there was a lot of room for improvement.

On June 9 we will face them on our home turf in a game that will actually count towards the standings in the Eastern Australian Football League (Us, Philly, NC, NY, and Boston).

Anyone who is local, come on down we can always use the support (for directions, click on the Baltimore/Washington Eagles link on the right).