Thursday, August 05, 2010

08/05 Quickie: Cuban, A-Rod, Lance, CFB

Like the rest of you, I am bummed -- but not surprised in the least -- that Mark Cuban's bid to own the Texas Rangers did not win. Here's hoping he can one day get that team. (Although from a strategic standpoint, it was much more important for him to own a Texas baseball team than, say, the Dodgers or Pirates or Cubs.)

A-Rod hits 600th: And the most over-deployed joke of the event was something related to "Well, if you discount for PEDs, it was really only like 300." In 10 years -- if not right now -- no one really cares about those asterisks or PED influence.

Lance: Yikes. To follow on that last point, I really do think that proof that Lance used PEDs won't fundamentally erode the rep he has earned for all those Tour de France wins and his inspiring life story.

To mildly contradict myself, the fact that Lance has protested his drug-free-ness -- extremely strongly -- would only make confirmation of any allegations that much more brutal. In true Quickie form, the cheating might be bad; the lying/cover-up is always worse.

Lots of college football teams get started practicing today, including Florida, whose practices are entirely closed to the media and public. I don't need to watch them or get first-hand media reports to know that John Brantley is going to destroy defenses this season.

(I have no problem saying that my expectations for Florida in Year 1 of the "Post-Tebow Era" is that they will make the SEC Championship with one loss -- at Alabama -- then win the SEC title. The following fact accrues every year: This is the most talented Florida roster in Urban Meyer's tenure at Florida.)

Shaq to the Celtics is official: What a circus that is going to be. By the way, Shaq is making something along the lines of league minimum -- what a crazy coda on his career.

Huge props to reader Garrett, who saw yesterday's item about Shaq and my question about Shaq playing for 6 teams and how many other Top 20/50/100 NBA players had that long of a resume... then in the comments, he totally pulled out Moses Malone:
"I'm not sure where you'd rank him, but Moses Malone played for the Braves, Rockets, Sixers (twice), Bullets, Hawks, Bucks and Spurs. And before he even played a regular season NBA game, he was on the Utah Stars and St. Louis Spirits in the ABA, then drafted by the Blazers in the ABA dispersal draft."
I'd definitely put Moses in the Top 50 and I love this call by Garrett. Kudos!

MLB Studs: Good debut -- almost Lilly-ish -- for Edwin Jackson as a White Sox starter... Now Lilly teammate Vicente Padilla? Even better than Lilly's LA debut... Ubaldo wins his 17th, but it just doesn't feel the same as the 1st-half "Ubaldomania"... Fantasy Stud: Domonic Brown: 3 RBI for the Phillies rookie.

NFL Camping: Sounds like Bucs QB Josh Freeman is not only way ahead of where he was as a rookie a year ago -- typical for QB development. I'm sure he will be even better a year from now. That's why I'm unconcerned about where Tim Tebow is right now. As long as he gets some snaps this season -- maybe even a few starts -- he will be on pace for a leap next season.

LenDale White has found a home: With the RB-light Broncos, who just lost Knowshon Moreno for at least a month and Corell Buckhalter for god-knows-how-long and are left with a stable of unknowns (which is hardly unusual for them). If White would just get in shape and -- well, care -- he might actually make something of himself.

Brett Favre, cont'd: The cell phone picture stuff is at least amusing -- far more amusing than the waffling.

Interesting job opportunity coming later today -- check back around noonish. Need some help with a project.

-- D.S.

2 comments:

Will Curley said...

Waiting for the job opportunity update!

BrooklynFC said...

What a shame that Cuban did not win the bid for the Rangers. He would have made them the Yankees of the west, but I feel it would be better if he bought the Dodgers because they are a big Market team that deserves a huge influx of money.