NLCS: Cards win 4-2, up 3-2: Thanks to that rain delay from Monday, we go right into Game 6 in New York tonight, with the Mets facing elimination and throwing lightweight John Maine against reigning NL Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter. Yet why do I still think the Mets will win? If you haven't been watching (and I know that's a lot of you), it's time to tune in.
From A-Rod to "A-Wrod": I think it's hilarious that all anyone wants to talk about with Lou Piniella is how soon the Cubs will trade for A-Rod. From the Day 1 coverage, you'd think it's a done-deal already. (And, as I pointed out yesterday, it should be.)
It's hard to believe that we're going to be living with this soap opera for the next four months. The Yankees and Cubs should do everyone a favor and consummate the trade during one of the World Series off-days.
Tiki to retire after '06 season? That's the story in today's NY Times, and I wouldn't blame him. Have you ever seen an NFL player get more love from TV and advertisers?
He may not be the most talented player (or most exciting or most winning), but he's good ENOUGH, good-looking and – always key – plays in New York. He'll have a lucrative TV analyst deal in place before the Giants' season is over.
Clinton Portis says he wants the ball more: And, given the Redskins' start, can you blame him? Tens of thousands of fantasy owners who took Portis anywhere from the 4th to 12th overall pick agree.
Koren Robinson's appeal was denied and he's suspended for the rest of the season. More important: Falcons OG Matt Lehr was suspended 4 games for violation of the NFL's substance-abuse policy.
How many NFL 2006 undrafted free-agents are on active 53-man rosters? Because Marcus Vick is having the last laugh, just moved from practice squad to the real deal. He's a poor man's Wes Welker. (And next stop: Starting QB! Just kidding, but wouldn't that be awesome?)
Melee in Miami, Cont'd: I have to say, for all the knee-jerk "Throw them all out!" ranting, I'm most impressed with The U. honcho Donna Shalala, who recognized that punishment was necessary but refused to give in to the insta-mob mentality and kick the offending player(s) out of school. But it's not like she didn't draw a line: The school now has a "zero-tolerance" system for antics like this. We'll see how that plays out as the inevitable antics occur. But I think she's handled it about as well as it can be handled.
(If it turns out that Shalala never saw the tape of the brawl, I'll have to downgrade my rating from "as well as it can be handled" to "some good, some bad." It's inexcusable for a school president to not watch that tape, particularly if she's passing judgment. Did she think that it would somehow insulate her judgment if she didn't see it? Makes no sense.)
(Meanwhile, have you heard about the OTHER brawl this weekend in college football: Dartmouth vs. Holy Cross. Yes, exactly like Miami vs. FIU... except, you know... Ivier.)
NBA Preseason Watch: Amazingly, last night's Knicks-Celtics game offered a look at two of the more intriguing rookies of the new season:
*Celtics PG Rajon Rondo continued to look like the most impressive rookie of his class and THE steal of the draft: 14 pts (7-11 FG) with a team-high 7 assists. (Why'd they trade away Roy/Foye for Telfair again?)
*Knicks SF Renaldo Balkman isn't even close to the embarrassment people thought he was the morning after draft night. In fact, he could end up one of the Top 10 most impressive rookies of the season, if only because the expectations are so LOW. Last night, he had 9 pts and 7 reb in 14 minutes (and, in 3 Knicks preseason wins, is averaging 8 pts and 6 reb in 18 minutes).
Evgeny Malkin debuts tonight: Now we get a chance to see what all the hype was about. (And if you're going, "Who's Evgeny Malkin?" consider your ignorance to be bliss.)
14-y.o. hoopster commits to USC: 6-6 guard Dwayne Polee got an offer from Tim Floyd and already took it. (USC fans should take a lesson from UCLA, which got a similar commitment from stud Taylor King, who reneged to go to Duke. And Illinois fans will tell you all about the "value" of early commitments.)
LCS to TBS: Turner Sports paid $350M to get the rights to one of the LCS series. Just as long as they don't hire Steve Lyons (actually, the rumor is that they're targeting Ripken or Grace for TV analyst roles).
CFB Top 25 Update: As I finalize my ballot for the week, I'm very close to joining the crowd, flip-flopping Michigan and WVA, putting UM at No. 2 and WVA at No. 3. (Happy, haters?)
-- D.S.
Posts
28 comments:
Dan-
General question here...
Do you read your email?
I once emailed you a topic i thought was right up your alley for discussion here and you didn't answer or talk about it.
I'm not saying you need to answer everything, I just wanted to know.
and in case you did read it, it was the email about the SI All-Time All-Star Team
"Over his career, Gibbs's Redskins are 120-19 when rushing more than 30 times in a game, and 22-61 when failing to do so."
"In the last 13 games, the Washington Redskins are 6-0 when having a back rush for over 100 yards, and 0-7 when they don't."
Fantasy aside, Clinton Portis is being "reasonable" and "logical", two words I'm having trouble associating with Gibbs and Saunders anymore.
Cardinals haven't won a series they've been up 3 games to 2 since 1985.
Ok, a couple of things...
ted(pittsburg)- no, no one saw that, I'm saying this assuming you're talking about hockey
Dan - **IMPORTANT INFO**
A-Rod to Cubs is gonna be very doubtful to make happen. Aramis Ramirez (the center of said trade on the Cubs side) has an opt-out option for this year, meaning if he wants to go to the yanks he could just opt-out and sign there, he's not likely to sign with chicago to be traded to ny, altho this is common in the nba it isn't in the mlb
Im very in favor of of Marcus Vick starting for Miami. the dolphins are done. they should give daunte the time to rest, and i guess they are raising joey harrington's trade value cause they said daunte's the future. so i would put vick in, why not?
THE BIG NEW NOW should be what was discovered on Mike and Mike this mourning. They apparently spoke to Donna Shalala and found out SHE NEVER SAW THE TAPE!!!
exuse me, WHAT????
everyone said this was inexuseable....your take?
She never saw the tape?! Yes, that's inexcusable.
guyinthecorner, I did see your email, and I'm sorry I didn't reply and didn't post about it here. Chalk it up to start-up inanity over these first weeks, but if you try again, I'm sure I'll get you a reply promptly.
Dan-
Did you read the Tribune last year? The Cubs getting Damon, Furcal, and Burnett last year was a lock according to the Chicago Tribune. They didn't end up getting any of them. This "hype" you're hearing is created by the newspaper that owns the Cubs, and people fall for it each year. This year, the Cubs are "supposed" to get A-Rod, Carlos Lee, Jason Schmidt, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio...LMAO.
What I find really funny is how the Tribune says it "can't afford" to build a new parking garage close to Wrigley, but they can somehow increase payroll to over 100 million this year. I guess they're doing ok since their company-owned scalping service gets most of the tickets before the general public does.
Okay, here's one. Everyone was worrying about Tom Glavine on short rest....2-5, 6.75 ERA.
Last night, Glavine gives up 3 ER in 4 innings. We all know how that computes, right? That's very funny.
I remember 20 years ago, the Mets coming home down 3-2 facing the eventual Cy....ugh, that seemed to work out ok for them. (Although they weren't throwing John Maine out there.)
I'm an alum, and I didn't even know about the Dartmouth-Holy Cross fight. I did read that crutches were involved, but mostly it's the annoying "let's jump and down in the middle of their field" thing. More MSU-ND, Miami-Louisville, than the Miami-FIU thing.
Does anyone have reason to believe Cal Ripken is a competent announcer? At least Mark Grace has worked in ESPN's booths at this point.
Actually, the idea of separate networks for the LCSes is old school, and a good idea. Now both games can overlap properly.....I doubt games can be switched around just to have the big market game at night. Really, how hard would it be to have the games scheduled in stone BEFORE they know who's playing? Like, the ALCS is going to be played on these days, at these times, on this network.
(I also think some billionaire could make scheduling his pet hobby. Hey MLB, here's $50 million, I want these games played at THIS time.)
Just want you to know I hate you right now Dan. You could have taken your Mets' prediction back, and we all would have been happy! Damn you and the curse...
Sorry, I need someone else to blame...I already cursed David I've got ARod Disease Wright, Shawn Slow Foot Weak Arm Green, and the blasted umps who's strikezone is the size of a doughnut (and I agree it was for Glavine AND Weaver, but it would have helped Glavine moreso).
No Quickie on the 9-1 Shellacking of the Flyers last night at the hands of the mighty Sabres Dan?
How about instead of getting hit with a Shalala, the offending Hurricanes get hit with a Shillelagh?
one of those Irish sticks across the back of the head might put some sense in them.
OK, the jokes are old, we get it, hockey was missing for awhile and now its back.
It was funny last season.
Its old now.
Just some proof I'm not insane or trying to blame it (all) on the umpires...here's what Keith Law said...
"Pujols is one of the best hitters in the game, and I thought Glavine struck him out on the pitch right before the homer anyway...Wainwright got a generous strike-three call to end the threat and make La Russa look smart."
Just throwing it out there.
Ivier (adj)- When part of your kidney is missing.
Sentence: I drank so much my kidney got Cory Ivier.
You can be arrested for incidents on the hockey ice especially if it is vicious. One would think that if its inside the accepted conduct of the game (penalty or not) it will be ok unless it is really vicious and outside the norms of hockey play.
Throw me in with those who don't get (AT ALL) what's supposed to be impressive about Shalala and Miami's handling of the fight aftermath. Guess it's real important not to have a 'knee-jerk' reaction to a program with a history for this kind of behavior...and you really want to think over thuggish, dangerous violence to make sure you don't fall pray to the 'mob mentality' of thinking those kind of actions are absolutely inexcusable and horrifying, and worthy of extreme punishment.
The school now has a "zero-tolerance" system for antics like this.
LMAO!!! Good. Glad they thought that one through. I guess simple human deceny and a semblance of discipline wouldn't have led to the general policy of zero-tolerance for violent, out-of-control fights during a game. That takes the 'impressive' Ms. Shalala to handle after the fact, right?
Sorry, Dan, you are so completely wrong on this one, I'm not even sure where it is you're coming from.
i live 10 minutes from holy cross and i didn't hear of any brawl.. this is where youtube comes into play.
I got Evgeni Malkin on my fantasy team.
"He's really good. He's going to be scary good," Mark Recchi said Tuesday. "I hate to bring up this comparison, but I don't think we've seen anybody with his size who can skate like him and do as much as him. He's as close to Mario as we're going to see for a long time."
And, going to the other Evgeni, Nabakov that is. 2 shutouts in 2 starts. Will he takeover the #1 goalie from Toskala?
Sharks BAY-BYYYYYYYYYY!
Mark Grace announcing an LCS? Yes, Please. It'll keep him busy until he replaces Lou Piniella in about 4 years.
"3. She didn't want throw anyone under the bus?!?!?!? Stomping on players and swinging helments are two specific stops on the "bus". in fact, the bus is instructed to back up and run over these people a second time."
Thanks for that -- not only did it completely sum up how these morons should've been handled, it made me laugh my ass off at the same time!
um
i gotta say i was scared to death for a sec there
coach k jewish?
luckily for me (and all jews) you are wrong
he is polish catholic
that wasa close 1 though
Jesus. It just gets worse.
Manningham, you sound like you just got through defending the "OB" or something. Settle down - nobody (who matters) wants to sit down any QBs with any concussions. I was proud that Penn State's total sacks allowed on the season doubled last weekend (and then some), but I obviously am not bragging about injuring other players.
Although, I was considering making a joke relating Penn State to that Michigan high school that isn't playing football this year.
Or maybe it was serious, I'm not even sure.
Anyway, I expect that we can agree - Michigan's defense is fast and tough.
ok i'm not sure what confused me more about the last post
was it
A. The fact I looked it up and found 0 evidence he's jewish
B. Numerous refernces to him being polish-catholic is what I found
C. The Onion is a sarcastic newspaper
D. 60% of his recruits are jewish is crazy inaccurate cause theres no more than 2 jewish guys on the team
E. Polish catholics are polish catholics not jewish
F. All of the above
I'm goin with F
mh86 -
Perhaps you should reread my post. It contains a parenthetical note which allows both of our statements to be true.
in the future when people make posts they have to clarify if they are kidding
that last post coulda gone either way, at least most of it
and jews don't convert people, and you can't really be half jewish, at least according to jewish law, jewish mom = jew, non-jewish mom = non-jew
i went to the onion and their archives only go back to 1996 so....
i also googled and couldnt get anything
so if theres a link.....
Belated Steve Lyons link...
Interview from Mike & Mike in the morning:
http://espnrad.vo.llnwd.net/o10/espnradio/insider/mike%26mike/mike%26mike_10172006_11.mp3
At work today we bandied about the idea that because UM is a private school while FIU is a state school, that is both small and not very old (30 yrs I think,) there is a difference in the motivations behind the different responses by the respective schools. Miami has a long and rich $ history of donations and as a private school they are much more profit oriented than a small state school. Lets be honest how many FIU players on the roster saturday have a legit shot at the NFL? A handful at best. Miami on the other hand is loaded and once a player signs that second contract with the inflated bonuses and whatnot you know who is going to be in contact soon. Since FIU is only 30 yrs old they suffer the same problem that all the second tier state schools have, a much smaller alumni to hit up for money. Therefore they aren't going to kowtow to the boosters and can be free to act in a much bolder way. Miami on the other hand would have about 80 odd yrs of alumni and their children to contend with. Maybe we are thinking into it too much but I bet if the same thing happened at UF or FSU the response would be similar to UM's while if it happened at USF, FAU, or UCF it would be more like FIU's. I really would like to hear your thoughts about this Dan Since you do follow fotball in florida.
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