Monday, October 02, 2006

Monday P.M. Quickie:
I'm Back! (So What'd I Miss?)

I'm back to blogging, and allow me a few thoughts to circle back to the last 24 hours in sports:

The No. 1 team in the NFL? Everyone saw them crush the defending NFC champs last night.

(I may have to revise my "1/4 MVP" ballot to give it to Steve McNair for the AFC and Rex Grossman for the NFC.)

Albert Haynesworth suspended 5 games: It's notable not for the viciousness of his stomp on Andre Gurode's face, but for being the longest NFL suspension ever for an on-field action.

Cubs fire Dusty Baker: Who didn't see this coming? The only question is whether the corporate restructuring within Tribune Co. will keep the Nats from poaching Joe Girardi.

Giants fire Felipe Alou: Hey, I hear Dusty Baker is available...

Remember that old rumor about Duke teammates Christian Laettner and Brian Davis? They're buying the Memphis Grizzlies together. Aww, how sweet...

(Could they possibly convince Coach K to take a pro job coaching the Grizz with Jerry West running the franchise?)

Clemens scandal: Well of COURSE he denies it. The question is: Will Hall of Fame voters hold this against him in the same way they're holding it against McGwire, Sosa and Bonds? Won't believe it 'til I see it.

(Now, the lead prosecutor for the Feds says that the LA Times story contains "significant inaccuracies." He didn't say if "inaccuracies" meant "The L.A. Times has lost all credibility, because Roger Clemens isn't listed.")

NBA Training Camps open tomorrow/Tuesday: I'll try to start rolling out my NBA preview, but I think it's mostly going to be back-loaded to the end of the month, closer to the actual opening game. Amazingly, the No. 1 storyline is the new freaking balls.

Also more tomorrow/Tuesday: It's the actual anniversary of the "Shot Heard 'Round the World," the most famous moment in baseball history. (It's also the subject of a great new book: "The Echoing Green," by Joshua Prager.)

And what about the MLB LDS series?!

I'm going to do a lot more tomorrow (Tuesday) morning in advance of the day's series starts. Here's my gut reactions ("gut" = I picked a Mets-A's World Series back in April in the Quickie):

A's over Twins (no confidence)
Yankees over Tigers (low confidence)
Mets over Dodgers (medium confidence)
Padres over Cards (high confidence)

-- D.S.

13 comments:

D. Ling said...

Dan, you're killing teams with the Shanoff Curse of calling them the best team in the league...
Two weeks ago you were calling the Jaguars the best team in the NFL.. how has that worked out for you?
If you curse the Bears you might end up with Wilbon on your doorstep with baseball bat preparing for a "beatdown".

Maher said...

Tell me again how 5 games is enough? If one of us did that one the street we'd be looking at serious legal issues. At least in the NHL they took care of it right (though after the strike knocked out the whole season, they should have extended bertuzzi's suspension another year).

Maher said...

have you seen the bears's schedule? do they have a shot at 16-0? If they get past Buffalo (not a big if really, home game and Losman starting for the other team) they should be 8-0 going to the Meadowlands.

Steve said...

260 interceptions down 17 to go, come on Favre you can break the record, I know it.

Mikepcfl said...

That's so cute that Davis and Laettner are buying a team together. Do they share a house too? How come Hurley isn't involved? Did they have a spat? I really thought Hurley and Laettner would last forever. Sad.

Gary said...

I stumbled across this on the metro news feed, it's long and about the Clemens steroid thing in case you want to skip it

"Former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jason Grimsley is denying claims by federal agents that he implicated fellow baseball players in the growing steroid scandal. Speaking through his attorney Ed Novak, Grimsley said he had no knowledge of star pitchers Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte using performance-enhancing drugs. The "Arizona Republic" quotes Grimsley as saying "never in a million years" would Clemens and Pettitte use steroids. An affidavit filed in federal court last May was said to have contained the names of those players Grimsley identified, but the names were later blacked out when the document was made public. Grimsley, who was caught by investigators receiving an illegal shipment of a growth hormone last April, still hasn't been charged with any crime. He had agreed to cooperate with investigators, but later stopped when he hired an attorney."

Jake C said...

Baseball is not the dirtiest sports...it's simply the only major sport to have loads of media coverage on the issue. College Football and the NFL have far more use, I can guarentee you that...they just don't care.

Unknown said...

But... I dont care either.

Baseball has always pulled the 'tradition' and 'holier than thou' attitude about its sport that opens them to more criticism.
America's pasttime..the unwritten rules..integrity of the game bullcrap with Rose..etc.
The NFL and NBA have not done that, so escape the tighter scrutiny.

Jake C said...

If you want to buy that, then that's fine. It's called media spin. You don't think the NFL has problems and is even worse, when half of a Super Bowl team comes up with PED issues and EVERYONE dismisses it?

TBender said...

Baseball is messier than football? HA!

The Carolina Panthers organizational steroid program?

Anonymous said...

It's simple, really. Baseball and their marketing arm and the news media made such a big deal of the home run records, and brushed aside any of the doubts (such as Reilly's column about how the players are juiced) about how they were doing it.

I think hitting probably takes as much skill as quarterbacking, running back, etc. But that's not the perception, and for a record as large as the home run record, it's clear now that the steroids gave them a sizable long term advantage that the Babe never had.

So that's why baseball looks awful and no one makes a big deal about football. Baseball created the problem for itself.

Personally, I find the Bears' Urlacher to be the scariest creation on the planet. If you've seen him with the pads off, it's hard to believe he's even human. He's more like a real-life comic book hero. Maybe the padding helps us to suspend disbelief?

Sean said...

My buddy saw Brian Davis and Christian Laettner walk into the Cosmic Cantina (burrito joint) in Durham together at 2am in the morning. And that was about 9 months ago. They are DEFINITELY together.

The Laughing Man said...

so how about "the declining Patriots"?