What I Think I Think

* I still think Tom Brady will go down as the greatest quarterback of all-time. But he'll need to win another Super Bowl to cement that status. There's a reason Dan Marino set and holds a ton of passing records but is never really in the G.O.A.T discussion: No rings.

* I think we've had more Bracketology this year than any other.  It's a small part of one of the many reasons college basketball gets it and college football doesn't. The first week of college football is one of the best sports weekends of the year. It's awesome until about Thanksgiving. Then fans have to ask ridiculous, time wasting questions like 'why does a computer determine our champion'? Anyway, college basketball gets it. Is a 68-team, single elimination tournament the best way to determine a champion? Of course not, but it's the most exciting and will never be short of $$$.

*I think if you put the ugliest college basketball players in a group, Anthony Davis would be the most talented, by far.

* I think if you're on Twitter, you have to follow Jay Bilas.

* I think Duke is the most vulnerable potential 1-seed. Followed by Kansas and Missouri.

*I think if anyone but Bill Self or Frank Haith wins the National Coach of the Year Award, something went wrong.

*I think the Texas Rangers edge closer to the Buffalo Bills and lose another World Series this season. This time to the Phillies or Marlins.

*I think Seattle will have an NBA team in 5 years. Probably the Hornets or Bobcats.

*It would never happen, but I think every Big 4 sports league would be better with 2-3 less teams.
NFL: Panthers, Buccaneers, Jaguars
NBA: Bobcats, Hornets, Timberwolves, Raptors
MLB: Nationals, Blue Jays
NHL: Any team in Florida, Georgia, either Carolina, Arizona, Southern California and Tennessee.

*I think Hockey Announcers are the best announcers.

*I think college basketball conference tournaments are dumb, and nothing more than an extra money grab. Ever heard of an NFC East tournament before the playoffs? How about an American League Central tournament in September?

*I think people need to stop with the Jeremy Lin Puns.

The Money Myth

Why do stupid people in baseball get a free pass? Actually, I should say, why do stupid poor people in baseball get a free pass?

No matter the sport, there's always stupid people making stupid decisions for bad teams. The NBA has the Clippers and the Knicks. The NFL has the Browns and the Bengals. Major League Baseball has the Cubs, Pirates, and Royals. It's just the way it is.

In the salary cap sports, bad decision makers are called out and it makes perfect sense. In baseball, if you're in the top half of the payroll chart and make bad decisions annually, you're usually called out as well. (See: Cubs, Chicago. Mets, New York)

But when poor teams make as many -or more- bad decisions than most, you hear a different tune. You hear about how unfair it is that the Yankees spend half a billion dollars and they can't afford it and how a salary cap would fix their problems and they don't have enough money to win and if it wasn't for the Yankees or Red Sox they wouldn't have stubbed their toe earlier in the day.

So how much money are World Series winners spending? The last 10 seasons, the average World Series winner has been No. 10 on the payroll list. Barely in the top 1/3 of spending. The Yankees have been No. 1 in payroll every year in that span and have as many title as the Marlins (25th the year they won) and one less title than the Cardinals (11th both years they won).


It's easy to say money doesn't automatically equal wins and be met with a "yeah, but it sure does help a ton" argument. And that's true. Teams with more money can make terrible trades or free-agent signings and not be sunk when it's a face-plant. Poor teams have to be more careful. That hasn't stopped the Tampa Bay Rays (28th avg payroll last 10 yrs) from competing in the game's toughest division for the last 4 seasons.

It's safe to say that once you're in the playoffs, it's any one's trophy to win. Three Wild Card teams have won the World Series the last 10 years while 4 others have played in the World Series.

The last 10 seasons, 22 different teams have made the playoffs out of 30 possible teams, about 73% of the teams. In the NFL, 30/32 have made postseason play,  about 93%. But they also have four more playoff teams every year, 12 instead of just 8. So the numbers are much closer. And what about winning championships?

The last 10 years, baseball has had 8 different World Series winners and another 5 teams who made the Series. The NFL, who is supposedly the bastion of fair play and the everyone-has-an-equal-shot league, has had 7 different winners.

When the Raiders draft Robert Gallery over Larry Fitzgerald, or when the Cardinals take Levi Brown over Adrian Peterson, they're just dumb decisions. And when the Yankees give Carl Pavano $40 million it was just a terrible idea, and rightly so. But when the Pirates trade Aramis Ramirez for some guy named Matt Brubeck, it's suddenly the Yankees' fault.

Sometimes you don't need $200 million to win. Sometimes people just aren't smart.

Theo, Chicago, and the Sleeping Giant

While many Cardinals fans watched the 2011 Red Sox collapse with a smile and pointed laughter,*** 

 ***Why not? Red Sox fans have become Yankees fans. Arrogant, bandwagon junkies who somehow have legions of followers in every city across the country. Away games are filled with Sox hats and fans who can't wait to sing Sweet Caroline in the 7th inning. I once saw saw about 5,000 Red Sox fans at a Royals game last year. It was a Thursday in September. In Kansas City. Not exactly road trip material from Boston. They grabbed their cool "B" hat and drove from Overland Park or Independence and said 'we' a lot. No accents, and they couldn't spell Brookline if you gave them vowels and and pointed to their Boston hat. They aren't Red Sox fans, and I'm sure most real Sox fans don't want them, either.

another Red Sox win or Rays loss could have done wonders for the Cardinals. And every other NL central team for that matter. The historic collapse sealed manager Terry Francona's fate and if all the reports are true, GM Theo Epstein is on his way to the Cubs. Calling the hapless Cubs a sleeping giant is tough, but what other sports franchise has that big of a payroll, an iconic franchise in a major city, millions of fans, but fans that generally don't seem to care? Their fate is sealed every year by Memorial Day and they almost embrace it. 

Take this picture for example. The opposing team just went deep and I count 6 people there laughing or smiling. They just can't wait to throw the ball back while drinking crappy beer. Throw it back, that'll show 'em.


One of the many things the Cubs haven't been able to do is develop talent. One of the things Epstein has been great at has been developing talent. -Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz, Jonathan Papelbon.

While the Cubs gave tens of millions to LaTroy Hawkins, Kosuke Fukudome, and Nomar Garciaparra, Epstein signed David Ortiz to a 1-year, $1.25 million contract after the Twins released him. He unloaded Garciaparra on the Cubs on way to winning the 04 World Series. He gave up the following players for Curt Schilling: Casey Fossum, Brandon Lyon, Jorge de la Rosa and Michael Goss. He claimed Kevin Millar before Millar's contract was sold to a Japanese team in 2003.

A lot of people like to discount his two world Series titles in Boston because of the payroll. If money is all you need, why haven't the Angels won a title since 2002? ($138 million payroll) or the Mets since '86 ($118 mil.) Cubs since forever ($125) Twins since '91 ($112) Dodgers since '88 ($104) etc.

The payroll won't be a huge drop off from Boston, and the difference in pressure won't even be close. Not to mention that if he wants to, he can bring over Terry Francona to manage for him. Say what you will about the advantages Epstein had in Boston or how Francona lost his team this season, if that duo can win two titles in the AL East, they can certainly win in the NL Central. And if breaking the curse in Boston was huge, winning in Chicago and Boston would be historic. If not, no big deal. Fans will shrug their shoulders and wait for next year.

Long Time No See

My old blog is no more, kind of. If you want to read any older posts you still can over there. If you want to know why I'm here now, leave a comment. (Page hits, people.)

Thanks to the steroid era, baseball's 500 Club has lost a lot of luster. Luckily, it's not the only 500 landmark in sports.

-There's 25 members of baseball's 500 club. 10 of those players played in the steroid era, and everyone in that group was either A) caught using steroids B) caught lying about steroids C) forgot English when asked about steroids, or D) suspected of using steroids at some point. Except this guy.

-Only 11 NFL quarterbacks have thrown for 500+ yards in a single game.
      -Dan Marino and Tom Brady make sense. Vince Ferragamo had me clicking on google, and what do you know, he has his own website. Not only that, but there's actually a Vince Ferragamo fan club. That's right. For only $30.00 you get an autographed photo, a Vince Ferragamo button, and an autographed letter thanking you for that $30.00. I'd pay Vince $30.00 just to see how many people are actually in his fan club.

-The Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates have combined for 2 seasons over .500 since 1993. The Red Sox have accomplished the feat 16 times in that span. The Yankees 19.

-2 pitchers, Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera have over 500 saves. Rivera now has 603, two more than Hoffman. No active player is within 170 of the 500 mark.

-The Indy 500 and Daytona 500 are the only races Americans remotely care about.

That's all for now.