Around the block
Many many things to get to this week. From Clemens to Bonds, the upcoming NBA draft to fallout from the NFL draft, from OJ getting the boot to race issues, the big fight and of course our periodic check into Cocoa Puffs.
With the unexpectedly early announcement that Sir Rocket has chosen the team du annee (year), those of us RedSox fans that still like Clemens (me and at most 2 others) have to endure him in pinstripes again. Have no fear, his stats will balloon up like Barry's head in no time, yet he will help the hated Yankees. He will post an era north of 4.00 but have a winning record due to the lineup behind him. My biggest disappointment comes from knowing this likely puts the icing on the cake as to which team's hat he will wear into the hall. It's too bad, I thought the Blue Jays hat would have looked great on his bust.
With yesterday's homer, Barry Bonds is 10 away from tieing Hank Aaron for the all-time HR record. When will some of the gutless, yet clean, pitchers in the NL start walking him repeatedly or better yet, bean him repeatedly. Bob Hille of the sporting news says, "I'm just afraid that the moment Barry Bonds breaks the home run record, he's going to get a big head."
The NBA draft lottery is on May 22nd. The likelyhood that the Celtics secure one of the top 2 picks is 38%. The top two picks are generally assumed to be Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. Either one would be fine with me to wear the green and white. Perhaps order could be restored to the NBA if the Celts finally had some luck in the lottery. With the need for guards strong, Durant would likely be my choice given the two to choose from. I understand the people that would want Oden and his size but Durant appears to be less likely to end up being written about with "why some draft picks don't work out" in the title. Dump Pierce for a future pick and some dead salary, go through one more year of rebuilding and come back with Durant, Jefferson, Green and a future 1st rounder as your core.
The interesting articles and opinions about the NFL draft all have Miami as the team that made the biggest mistake. They also were acknowledged as having a very good draft. Interesting how that works but that is the NFL draft. NOTHING is for certain until a few years from now. Then and only then can the grades be given out. Randy Moss to the Patriots is interesting. Look for him to reborn again and be a model citizen for at least the first 4 or 5 games. One time of Brady throwing underneath while he jogs down field and he will implode. No harm no foul. Having the Patriots cut him mid-season is the best way to teach the other players that nobody is unexpendable.
Today, news broke that in Louisville Kentucky, a restaurant owner found out OJ Simpson was in his restaurant. He tracked him down and told him "he would not server him". After having to repeat himself, OJ got up and followed the owner out to the lobby. OJ asked if he could wait for his party to show up to explain they would have to leave. During this time, a blond, presumably OJ's date got in the owner's face to which the owner said something to the affect, "your blond, watch out, he may slit your throat."
It has been close to 12 years since OJ was acquitted and yet he causes such polar responses to everything he does, everywhere he goes. Everything I have read or heard suggests the majority of his supporters are African American.
Race finds it's way into sports talk way too often. I am not suggesting there is no place for it or that there are no issues with equity in sports but the stories this week that major league baseball is responsible for the decline of black players in the majors is absurd. The notion that blacks are being held back somehow and that MLB is responsible should provoke widespread discussion into the value of the groups that bring this crap to the public. Maybe there has been a decline in black players in baseball because the inflow of hispanics and now Asians is increasing every year. Maybe it is because the "glamour" sports of Football and Basketball have the youth looking at and idolizing the stars of those sports more than baseball. The pace of baseball has likely hurt it more than anything in my opinion. Today's youth, whether black or white or whatever, have less patience for baseball than yesterday's youth. To conclude this thought I will borrow from a local sports talk personality who said it best the other day, (from memory, not a direct quote) "when I talk negatively about Michael Vick for 5 minutes on the air I get overloaded with emails calling me a racist, yet when I spend an hour blasting Dirk Nowitski I don't get any emails. Where are all the German listeners?" His point is that every issue, every discussion cannot and should not revolve around race. Has anybody looked into why there has been a noticable decline in caucasian players in the NBA in the last 30 years? This is big, notify all the networks, get ESPN on the line. Geesh.
This past weekend, there was a fight on pay-per-view. Ho hum, but worth mentioning is that it was the largest pay-per-view fight EVER. Estimated at 2.1 million people paid for the right to watch a fight. Amazing. This wasn't Hagler/Hearns or Hagler/Leonard or Tyson in his prime against anybody, this was a middleweight bought. Boxing has gone a long way, unfortunately it is down as in popularity. I admit I was not one of the 2.1 million people, I had no interest. However, I did follow the talk before and after the fight. Talk of how De La Hoya tried to steal many of the rounds with a flurry at the end, of which, he evidently didn't land too many punches. Both fighters have gone so far as to keep the door open for a rematch...why not? Here are the real numbers and my complaint about fighting and sports in general. From ESPN.com : "De La Hoya was guaranteed $23.3 million and Mayweather $10 million for the fight. With the overwhelming success of the event, De La Hoya could take home upwards of $50 million with Mayweather earning around $20 million."
Think about that, no matter who won, De La Hoya was making at least $23 million that night. What incentive, other than pride, is there for a top fighter to go all out? Lets say the payout equals the 50 and the 20 million respectively and the rest go to promoters etc. Lets then have a rematch and guarantee $10 million each (they gotta eat, right?) and have the balance of $50 million go to the winner on a sliding scale. All $50m if the winner gets a knock out before round 8, $40m before round 9, $30m before round 10, $20m before round 11 and $10m if he gets a knock out in the 12th round. Any leftover funds not paid out go to brain damage research. I'm serious. Give these guys a reason to want to win. De La Hoya made in the neighborhood of $50m...obscene...he lost...
My last report on the Sox centerfielder had him at .231 and on the rise. This week, his season to date average is .226. I am pretty good at math and I believe he must have had a tough week to decline an average from .231 to .226. While the Sox continue to perform, he does not. Before the all-star break, he is gone and they trade for a centerfielder that can get on base. There are 8 players in the AL that have at least 50 at bats yet have an OBP lower than .300, yep, Coco is one of the eight:
name/obp/ab
Ty Wigginton .294 127
Melky Cabrera .295 95
Coco Crisp .277 93
Nelson Cruz .273 70
Dioner Navarro .274 77
Jason Kendall .212 110
Tony Pena .266 117
Shea Hillenbrand .248 102
And finally, I get some press. Check out page 5, middle top for mention in a local Atlanta weekly sports publication called Score Atlanta http://www.scoreatl.com/SCORE_current_issue.pdf
This link will always bring up the current issue but the issue in question is the May 9-15th edition.
Cya next time!
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