Congrats Peyton, Here is Your MVP

Don't be so sad Peyton, you just won the MVP



Peyton Manning won the NFL MVP on Sunday, and he won it with a signature moment. His signature moment was not a tight spiral over the middle to Dallas Clark to convert a first down. His signature moment was not a nicely lofted fade to Reggie Wayne in the corner of the end zone to complete a fourth quarter comeback. Hell, it was not even one those painful to watch, and rarest of rare, Manning naked bootlegs into the end zone.


Manning won the MVP when nationally televised cameras showed Colts defensive captain and star linebacker Gary Brackett on the sidelines. Some pictures say so much more than a thousand words. As the Jets mounted an unlikely comeback against the undefeated Colts, Head Coach Jim Caldwell benched many of his star players. Manning and Brackett were on the sidelines. The Colt’s defensive captain expression was priceless. Brackett’s face was vacant and without passion. He was not a warrior in the midst of battle. He looked like a disinterested father at a school play. The school play where your son is Rabbit #4. The school play when your son’s first line is his only line. The school play where your son’s line is … You get the idea.

Statistically, there are many viable MVP candidates. Chris Johnson, Drew Brees Phillip Rivers, Aaron Rodgers and Manning are the most prominent. By not being on the field today, Peyton actually showed how he is the Indianapolis Colts. The presence of Manning on the sideline and not in the hudddle, undermined and altered the persona of his collective teammates. He has been the face of his entire team for so long, he has become the team. The Colts without Manning are Starbuck's without coffee. His determination will probably not be enough to win the Colts the Superbowl this season. (Peyton and the Colts can not run the ball well enough or play enough defense to survive the playoff tournament). But Sunday, it was enough to win him another MVP.

Not so Bold, Not so Daring and/ or Possible Happenings for 2010.

Following are some predictions for 2010. Please consider:


Brett Farve will retire, at least once.

Mainstream sports fans will follow the World Cup. (It is a soccer event). ESPN will shove it down our throats. Because ESPN says so, we will mindlessly watch, briefly. Regardless of result, the American side (that’s what they call a soccer team) will disappoint us. The American fan will fall back into a world of disinterest.

The NBA play-offs will end just before Labor Day. The TV ratings will be great though because the Lakers will be in the finals.

The winter Olympics will take place, I think. You won’t watch for more than an hour combined.

The American League will win the All-Star Game.

Defense will win championships.

You won’t even try to find a regular season hockey game on television.

Tiger will play in and win at least one tournament before the Master’s. All will be forgiven but questions will remain. Men will still wonder why Tiger’s harem included some of those women (unattractive). Seriously, he could have done better than the one with the cubic zirconia bedazzle on her face.

None of these events will matter as much the sports you, family or friends will play in the backyard or the local park in your community.

From the Tiger Beat

Tiger, Tiger, Tiger

The beat goes on for Tiger. Some media members have really sunk their teeth into Tiger Woods, and they are going for the kill. As Marlin Perkins taught us at an early age, it is not likely they will let go anytime soon. Public opinion will certainly follow.

Tiger has now, along with many other high profile athletes, been linked to a Canadian doctor who has a litany of links to performance enhancing drugs. Dr. Anthony Galea was arrested by the Canadian Police for possessing human growth hormone and Actovegin in October. Actovegin is a drug comprised of, but not limited to, calf blood. Mind you this is “calf” as in the calf that goes “moo.” This is not “calf” as if to say, “Did you hear that fat-ass Jimmy pulled his calf muscle in the beer league softball game last Tuesday.”

Hopefully, Tiger comes out of all this o.k. Already, and for good reason, he is being punished pretty thoroughly in the court of public opinion for his “other transgressions.” Technically, he has done nothing more to draw the public’s ire, but his past has given the critic in all of us more fodder. His Q rating is falling like an “over-served” salesman’s wife at a Christmas party. Maybe he can get his family and life back together. If he cleans up his “affairs,” he will undoubtedly be forgiven. If there is anything that Americans like to do more than forgive our celebrities, it is to forgive our celebrities quickly.

This latest scenario however is quite troubling. “Arrested Canadian doctor” does not have a nice ring to it. Sometimes having a national adjective is good. We think of positive associations when we use clichés like, American ingenuity, French cuisine, Argentine beef, German engineering. On the other hand Canadian doctor has suspect connotations like unnamed Chinese government official or Iranian hair stylist or Serbian pacifist. Apparently, the Canadian doctor made multiple visits to Tiger’s home during the golfer’s recovery from a 2008 ACL tear and subsequent surgery. Why do we not conjure up the image of the 1960’s friendly, gentle family physician paying a visit to Wally and the Beaver’s house? Maybe this is because Galea has acknowledged taking HGH himself for a decade. Apparently, Galea admits to performing a procedure on Tiger called blood spinning. Blood spinning involves removing blood from the body, increasing the amount of red blood cells and then injecting the concentrated blood back into the body. This process speeds recovery. Tiger may not have done anything technically improper here, but these accounts will embolden his detractors. Anytime we hear “injections” in sports, we are conditioned to draw fateful conclusions.

As if it was needed, there is plenty more material for Tiger jokes. What some may not find funny is just bizarre. For example, the Associated Press is reporting that Galea is under investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. We now have Tiger linked to the Mounties. Tiger, Mounties, what could be better? David Letterman must be thrilled. Not only did he just get to induct Tiger into his club of Rich Guys Who Like to Cheat A Hell-of-a-Lot, he just got another week’s worth (at least) of jokes that practically write themselves.

Before Thanksgiving, Tiger was considered one of the world’s most mentally strong athletes. He has made reportedly over a billion dollars by his unequalled ability to will a golf ball around a course better than anyone. He has demonstrated an uncommon ability to eliminate distractions and remain focused, with millions on the line, for thirteen years now. He does not have a track record of cracking up or mental gaffes (see Phil Mickelson 2006 U. S. Open). He has shut down distraction to win 14 major golf tournaments and seventy one PGA events. Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington, Ernie Els and Mickelson have won 12 majors combined.

Now, we see him differently. He has repeatedly acted as someone that is above inspection. Tiger does need a break to correct his course. His choices have been bad; he has shown no concern for potential negative consequences. Before we saw him as a work of art, a complete man; now we inspect his methods and movements in the past, present and even future with apprehension. It will be interesting to see Tiger's endgame in the court of public opinion. Is he the great champion and seeking every possible advantage of cutting edge science to return from injury and compete? Or, is he corrupting golf’s lily white reputation with PEDs? Ultimately, his legacy will be decided over time. But for now, he is just a cheater.

It's great to see Tommy Lasorda every spring for all the wrong reasons




Baseball: Ten Reasons to Love, Hate and Wonder

Baseball is no longer America’s pastime. The internet, where you found this blog, is America’s past time. The internet is what we do to waste our time, find how to fix things and to learn from Wikipedia, not Encyclopedia Britannica.

Baseball was our nation’s pastime, but today, for a myriad or reasons it may rank just above pitiful hockey in the hierarchy of sports relevance. This is quite sad, no actually it is borderline distressing. The game is amazing, like a strange combination of a living chess match, track and field, golf and much more. It does not return dividends quickly. Baseball requires raw athleticism and rewards refined skill. Baseball is a sport that is at least as much quirky as it is athletic. These are the beautiful elements of baseball.

Baseball’s biggest strength and weakness is Major League Baseball. (MLB) carries the standard and sometimes the plunger for the game. It is the engine and the breaks. We also know the game of baseball would not survive without the presence of MLB.

The following ten elements of the game, more or less exclusive to the Major Leagues, make baseball great in an interesting and at the same time laughable and amusing and annoying way. Some idiosyncrasies that “purists” often label traditions keep it worthy of our interest at worst and fascinating at best. Some idiosyncrasies make the sport unappealing and out of our current context, others make baseball the sport that so many of us love.


Managers, Coaches and Hangers-on in Uniforms

Managers wearing uniforms is very funny. These guys are usually fat. They are often old. Their skin is not worthy of the cover of “Cosmopolitan,” see Jim Leland –rode hard put up wet with cigarette firmly planted in his face. These guys are not going to need those uniforms. As a lot, they do nothing athletic. Hell, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I see Bobby Cox go out on the field to change pitchers or argue with an umpire. Also, the Dodger home white uniform, my favorite uni of all, on Tommy Lasorda is a train wreck classic. Yet as fans, we know Spring is on the way when we see the post-Slim Fast Lasorda “instructing” young players every February. This is uniquely baseball. Think about this, how great would it be to see Don Nelson on the sideline in basketball shorts at an arena near you? It makes you wonder, would he wear shorts from the late sixties/ early seventies or today?

The All-Star Game (Part 1) aka the Good

To a young fan, the All-Star game was the perfect end to a summer day: baseball at the park in the morning, waffle ball and the pool in the afternoon and the game at night. It is still cool to see all the different uniforms at pregame introductions. Every year we argue which player is worthy to be selected. Is it the flash in the pan having a monster season, or is it the veteran whose performance is trending from respectable to mediocrity quickly? The mid-summer classic gets our undivided attention because the sports world is at standstill in mid July. Do the other sports have other all-star moments, rarely? Baseball has Rose and Fosse, Ripken’s home run, Reggie Jackson’s monster home run in Detroit and John Kruk trying to avoid getting killed by Randy Johnson.


The All-Star game (part 2) aka the Bad

This is the maddening part of MLB. Thanks to Bud Selig and his 7-7 tie game in 2002. Now games will not end in a tie, and the league that wins will have home field advantage for their respective World Series representative. To say this is a good idea is like saying the White Sox should bring back the black uniforms with lapels and shorts from 1977. Do we want the annual Pirates All-Star representative, be it Freddy Sanchez, Nate McClouth or Jack Wilson coming to the plate or the mound with World Series implications? No. This is truly the type of thing that makes baseball maddening.


The Forever Season

The MLB season is long. For some reason the season’s length does not get ridiculed like the NBA’s. This is because the NBA’s playoffs could be timed in trimesters. MLB starts spring training at around Valentine’s Day and this year the World Series ran into November. However, baseball also produces 162 games in a regular season to basketball and hockey’s 82, and the MLB teams usually play six days a week. This is a good thing, like a sunset. There is something comfortable in baseball’s steady, consistent route from April thru October. The box score of your team is there daily. Every morning you can check on how many hits Ichiro had the night before. On Sportscenter you can wait for Vladimir Guerrero’s furious swing at pitches no where near the strike zone that somehow turn into doubles. Baseball’s consistency is healthy summer routine. This is good.

Unbalanced Divisions and Leagues

The American league has 14 teams. The National League has 16 teams. The American League West has only four teams while the National League Central has six teams. This creates an unbalanced schedule and skews the playing field in the divisions. Do the Pirates really need the challenge of being better than five teams to win a division pennant? Do the big market, big spending Almost Los Angeles Angels need the advantage of only having to be better than three teams? This is another instance of baseball not making sense. Some will argue that the length of season and the wild card negate any advantages. This argument doesn’t hold water. There are always division champions that have worse record than the wild card entrant. Therefore, it is commonly easier to win the division than a wildcard slot. As an example, this year the Twins (American League Central champions) would have finished 9 games behind the Red Sox in the wildcard standings.

Also, in 2009 the Rockies played only 15 interleague games, while many teams played 18. Since the American league is recognized as the stronger league, it can be said the Rockies had an undue advantage.

Arbitration: Like Reality TV only much, much Better.

The arbitration process is everything reality TV is supposed to be. Reality TV is supposed to be about real people facing each other in uncomfortable, challenging situations. To bad reality TV has evolved beyond that. (Where have you gone Eric Nies)? Back on topic, this is arbitration my friends. A player, or usually his agent requests a salary and provides a supporting argument. A member of team management provides a salary, usually on the low side, and a supporting argument. The best part is the player is also in the room, while his team talks about why they feel he is not worth his asking price. In early 2003, Greg Maddux and the Braves were scheduled to meet in the arbitration room. Boy, it would have been great to hear the Braves exec explain why Greg Maddux was not worthy. The Braves representative must have been working on some strong statements such as, “Greg is really not worthy of his asking price. I mean, he has only won 3 Cy Young awards with us, he has only averaged 18 wins in his ten year’s here. Sure, he had his lowest era in four years last season, but he only pitched 199 and one third innings.” Unfortunately much like in reality TV, this moment never got to occur. Maddux and the Braves settled days before the arbitration hearing.


Please check back for part two very soon.

Send me your comments good or ignorant. Is there more of the bizarre baseball world you would like to read about? Let me know.