They're Not Listening

The Other 58 (aka I'm so glad it's over)

2012-01-30T16:02:00.006-05:00

As promised the final 58 match-ups. This is pretty much entirely guess work, keep RPIs close, keep travel distance close and look for interesting scenarios that you can find without tons of research.

Nobody can really explain how it’s done by the big boys. One day we can find out. Some teams may not want to travel, others may be debating on whether to come back the following year or wait a year. Like Old Dominion did this year against Cleveland State.

After numerous hours of my BracketBuster Map, Google Maps, RealTime RPI and many other things. I’ve finalized the last 58 match-ups with an average of 32 RPI points between the teams (25 points for the TV games, so not bad) and an average 577.9 miles per match-up, excluding Hawaii.

In order to make it easiest for the folks to follow I’ll do it by Conference in Alphabetical Order with only the HOME TEAMS. So if you aren’t sure where to find the team you are looking for use “Find” in your browser.

America East
Home of the perennial 16 seed, the only team in D1 Basketball without a win and one of only two conferences not to get on TV. Its likely the winner of this conference will have to win in Dayton (if you know what I mean)

Fairfield @ Albany
Both teams could use this as a kickstart to jump to the top of their leagues
Presbyterian @ Maine
Teams are one apart in RPI, despite a decent chunk of mileage
Hampton @ New Hampshire
Two more teams that are one apart in RPI
James Madison @ Vermont
Vermont went to the NIT last year and is one game behind conference leaders Stony Brook. JMU has struggled in the CAA so far.

Big Sky
Weber St. has come out of nowhere and Montana is right there as well. The winner is probably looking at a 15 seed, but with the right match-up could slide up to 14.

Portland St @ Montana
Relative proximity
UC Davis @ Northern Arizona
My apologies to Northern Arizona, but good news is you get a win.
Texas A&M CC @ Northern Colorado
Remember when they made the tournament and everyone was calling them TamiFlu?
San Jose St @ Sacramento State
Proximity
Nevada @ Weber State (see yesterday’s TV match-ups)

Big South
Is the top of the Big South for real? This is the only chance to find out. Teams will need a good showing to help boost the tourney winners chance of avoiding a play-in (ahem Opening Round) game.

Siena @ Charleston Southern
Charleston Southern will have a say in the Big South title when things are said and done. Siena has been to the tourney before but aren’t in the race this season.
UNC Wilmington @ Coastal Carolina
If Coastal Carolina were an away rteam this year they would have been on TV. Probably the #2 or #3 snub for home teams.
IUPUI @ Gardner-Webb
Another average match-up simply due to travel and league restrictions I tried to set.
UMBC @ Radford
I would have loved to send UMBC to Towson for the battle of 2nd worst team in Maryland (Yes, the Wizards are that bad). But both were away teams.
Delaware St @ VMI
The last game I picked, so it’s not a great match-up. But surprised that the travel worked out.

Big West
Let’s just put this out there the Big West is a nightmare to project especially with most of the teams being between 220-340 in RPI. They have to travel somewhere but it has to be reasonable.

Not going to discuss each one, because they are mostly just regional.

Southern Utah @ CS-Fullerton
Idaho St @ CS-Northridge
Hawaii @ UC-Irvine
UTSA @ UC-Riverside
Probably the best game of the bunch, despite the travel. The RoadRunners have a great young coach and are right there in the Southland.
Texas St @ Pacific

Colonial Athletic Conference
Very few mid-major conferences have sent two DIFFERENT teams to the Final Four. In fact this is the only one to do it in at least 20 years. But this year the Strength of Schedule at the top of the league has the winner looking at a 14 or 15. GMU and VCU will be on TV, but need their league mates to pick up some good wins as well.

Rider @ Delaware
81 miles apart, 6 spots apart in RPI. Could you ask for an easier one?
UNC Asheville @ George Mason (TV Match-up)
Campbell @ Georgia State
Similar RPIs, not to far apart. Becomes the theme when you are predicting 71 games.
Niagara @ Hofstra
I don’t understand Hofstra they are 7-16. Yet may have single handedly destroyed two teams chances at at-large bids (wins against Iona and Cleveland State)
Youngstown St @ Northeastern
Two teams in good conferences that are looking to break out from the middle of the pack.
Buffalo @ VCU (TV Match-up)

Horizon League
Very few mid-major conferences have sent the SAME team to the Final Four in back to back years. In fact this is the only one to do it EVER. But that team is in a down year and a lack of recognition outside said team hurts this league in the National Spotlight. There are some very good teams though in this conference.

Indiana State @ Butler
I’ve heard rumors this game has already been leaked. It’s a no-brainer. Two tourney teams from last year, in true mid-major conferences, 80 miles apart and very close in RPI.
UNI @ Cleveland State (TV Match-up)
Marist @ Detroit
The ever-underachieving Detroit team really should be able to win this game. As you will read below I wanted to send BGSU there, but that didn’t work.
Western Illinois @ Green Bay
Two teams that are similar in RPI, similar in record and have moderate travel.
Oakland @ Milwaukee
Oakland has probably underperformed this season, but Milwaukee might bring out the best in them. If I had to put any game of this group on TV, I’d pick this one (over Kent State/College of Charleston)

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
The MAAC is in the midst of a logjam up top. Three teams sit there tied for first at 9-2, and all have 16 or 17 wins. The question must be asked if Manhattan and Loyola MD are for real. People seem to think Iona. This is exactly what BracketBusters is all about.

Hartford @ Canisius
Close in RPI and a bus ride distance for these two teams that have combined for 8 wins on the year.
Akron @ Iona (TV Match-up)
Old Dominion @ Loyola Maryland (TV Match-up)
Stony Brook @ Manhattan
58 miles apart, in terms of proximity there are only two or three other combinations of conference leaders in different leagues that are closer than these two (Can you name them?)
Towson @ Saint Peter’s
Towson’s losing streak made the Cavaliers sorrows last season look reasonable. This is a game they can win and get to TWO on the season

Mid American Conference
Yes I am biased about this conference, it’s not as good as the Horizon. It hasn’t been for a few years, yet it still gets better coverage and more attention. However with three teams who could all surprise people come March it’s still tough at the top.

Tennesee State @ Ball State
Similar teams, fair amount of travel. Just kind of fit.
Boston University @ Bowling Green
I had Bowling Green going to Detroit for a picture perfect RPI match-up. And then realized Bowling Green was a home team. So instead they’ll host Boston U – the team directly ahead of them in RPI
Loyola-Chicago @ Central Michigan
One of 3 MAC/HL games in my predictions, I couldn’t pull the trigger on sending Wright State to Miami.
College of Charleston @ Kent State
These are the teams most likely snubbed for not getting a TV game. So they should play each other. Charleston is familiar with the area as they visited Cleveland last year for the NIT
Tennesee-Martin @ Miami (OH)
Proximity over anything else here just over 250 miles apart.
Valparaiso @ Ohio (TV Match-up)

MEAC
Only three teams from the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference participated this year, which is a shame because the only good one (Norfolk St 16-6) didn’t.

William & Mary @ Morgan State
Regional match-up for teams that are barely even relevant to alumni and students (Right Jed?)

Missouri Valley Conference
Ask anyone and they will tell you how good the Valley is. And then when they get two teams in the tournament the excuse is they beat each other up. I might buy that this year. 7 teams are within a game of 3rd place. But none of them are within four of 1st.

Toledo @ Bradley
Geno Ford left the MAC to head to Bradley where he hasn't exactly seen greener pastures yet.
St. Mary’s @ Creighton (TV Match-up)
Tennessee Tech @ Evansville
Will be a better match-up then the blind eye thinks. Tennesse Tech is the most likely team to beat Murray St in the OVC.
Morehead St @ Illinois State
Another OVC/MVC pairing.
Lamar @ Missouri State
These two could have been TV teams as well. Both still have a shot at the Tourney, Lamar more so then their host.

Ohio Valley Conference
The league of undefeated Murray State. The Racers have grabbed some attention for the OVC, which is an otherwise mediocre conference. They do have some tourney history though Morehead St the most recent upset special.

Eastern Michigan @ Austin Peay
EMU will have to Go Peay before the trip down south
Northern Illinois @ Eastern Illinois
Northern and Eastern aren’t as close as you would think but still a do-able bus trip
Wright State @ Eastern Kentucky
Teams are ten spots apart in RPI and 158 miles away from each other.
Central Arkansas @ Jacksonville State
Another location game, finding placing for all those teams in Tennessee and Kentucky that can’t play each other is tough.
Wichita St @ Murray State (TV Match-up)
Illinois-Chicago @ SIU Edwardsville
Illinois is way bigger than I thought. These schools significantly closer in RPI then they are in distance.

Southern
Another half participation league, difference is that arguably the three best teams out of this conference are in.

Liberty @ Appalachian State
Meh? It was getting late last night and I needed some good regional stuff.
Drexel @ Davidson (TV Match-up)

Southland
What can you say about the Southland other than that the winner of this conference gets the right to play in Ohio’s version of... JERSEY!

Disclaimer: The match-ups here were essentially how can I get these teams games without making someone travel 1200 miles.

Wofford @ McNeese State
See disclaimer
High Point @ Nicholls State
See disclaimer
IPFW @ Northwestern State
See disclaimer
Montana St @ Sam Houston University
1739 miles away, but can you really complain if you play your home games in Montana?
Binghamton @ Southeastern Louisiana
Let’s put it bluntly Binghamton is really really bad. They had to go somewhere that nobody could consider halfway decent and sending them to UC Davis wasn’t going to work.
Winthrop @ Stephen F. Austin
Remember that disclaimer?

Summit League
I actually like the Summit League it’s not a bunch of pretentious college basketball wannabes like the other league it shares man borders with (cough cough Missouri cough cough Valley), but every year they produce a good team or two. This year it’s Oral Roberts and South Dakota St. both who will feature on TV.

Fresno St @ Univ. of Missouri-KC
The worst routing match-up available. Fresno St isn’t a bad team, they aren’t a good team either. Unfortunately for them everyone near them is one of those two.
Western Michigan @ No Dakota St Univ.
If you are going to make someone go to Fargo, make it be someone from Kalamazoo.
Drake @ So Dakota St Univ. (TV Match-up)
The closest South Dakota State will ever get to a rap show in their gym… I should have made that joke yesterday sorry.
Southern Illiois @ Univ. of South Dakota
Another one where I was just trying to fit teams in
Long Beach State @ Oral Roberts University (TV Match-up)

WAC
The Western Athletic Conference has seen better days than it's basketball programs see right now.

Eastern Washington @ Idaho
It’ll do, not perfect though
SE Missouri St @ Louisiana Tech
I have to assume the only reason La Tech is in the WAC is because the Southland doesn’t have FBS football. What you want my comments to be basketball related?
UT-Arlington @ New Mexico St (TV Match-up)
Cal Poly @ Utah State
Once again regional match-up with attempt to not crush someone’s Strength of Schedule

WCC
Only Catholic schools with Mary in their name were allowed to participate this year for the West Coast Conference.

UCSB @ Loyola Marymount
Nobody likes a third wheel, but a fourth wheel is nice unless you are riding a tricycle. With all the hoopla of St. Mary’s, Gonzaga and BYU in the WCC, Loyola is that fourth wheel. Not as good as the top 3, but WAAAYYYYY better than the bottom 5.

ESPN BracketBuster: The Introduction

2012-01-29T15:52:00.005-05:00

142 teams will participate in this year’s BracketBuster, in something that has never been done before. I will predict all 71 games. I know what you are thinking, no way anyone would have enough time to do that. Well guess what, someone does.

First off are the 13 TV games, unlike last year there seems to be no skeleton schedule. The network can put games at whatever time they want during the weekend. With 26 teams playing on TV, some standard must be set. I say you need to have 13 wins if you think you belong on TV. Why? These are teams that are looking for an a resume builder for the NCAA tournament. Most teams will play 5-6 games before the BracketBuster weekend. Last season 6 non-BCS conference teams were at-large bids. They had 30, 26, 25, 24, 23 and 22 wins. In 2010 8 non-BCS conference teams were at-large bids 29, 29, 27 26, 26, 26, 25 and 24 wins for those teams. Simple fact if you don’t have 13 yet the chances that you could get to 25 with 12-15 games left before Selection Sunday are slim. (This knocks out Butler, College of Charleston, Oakland and UCSB... it should have knocked out Buffalo, but they get a wild card on Rule #2)

With the exception of teams in probable “multi-bid” leagues West Coast Conference (WCC) and Missouri Valley (MVC) this season, you need to be within striking distance of winning the regular season. Two games out in a one bid league is still a lot of ground to make up, especially if you have lost to all three teams ahead of you (that is Kent State... however Buffalo is 1 game out and beat the team in first)

The third thing I look at is geographical logistics, a little more allowance is accepted for the TV games, as they want the 13 best matchup. But Hawaii to Maine is never going to happen unless they are the #1 and #2 teams in the country. I try to keep match-ups 4-13 within 700 miles. With the non TV match-ups try to keep it to 400 miles (Toledo was 3-24 when they visited a 14-15 CSU team in 2009).

After ranking all the teams my top 13 home teams in order are Creighton, Murray St Cleveland St, Oral Roberts, Iona, Davidson, South Dakota St., Ohio, Weber St, Virginia Commonwealth, George Mason, New Mexico St and Loyola Maryland (Kent St, Coastal Carolina, Missouri St and Wisconsin Milwaukee would be the next 4 in.)

For the away teams we go St. Mary’s, Wichita St, Nevada, Long Beach St, UNI, Drexel, Akron, Valparaiso, UNC-Asheville, Drake, Texas-Arlington, Buffalo, Old Dominion (The away teams this year are significantly weaker at the top then the home so Lamar, and College of Charleston are really the only two who get left out).

For the match-ups visit ... ESPN BracketBuster TV Matchups

ESPN BracketBuster The TV Match-Ups

2012-01-29T15:34:00.007-05:00

For a little information on how I did this check out ESPN BracketBuster Introduction

You've seen the methods, you've seen the rankings assuming you read that above link (which of course you did, right)?

Here are the rankings one more time

HOME

Creighton, Murray St Cleveland St, Oral Roberts, Iona, Davidson, South Dakota St., Ohio, Weber St, Virginia Commonwealth, George Mason, New Mexico St and Loyola Maryland (Kent St, Coastal Carolina, Missouri St and Wisconsin Milwaukee would be the next 4 in).

AWAY

St. Mary’s, Wichita St, Nevada, Long Beach St, UNI, Drexel, Akron, Valparaiso, UNC-Asheville, Drake, Texas-Arlington, Buffalo, Old Dominion (The away teams this year are significantly weaker at the top then the home teams so Lamar, and College of Charleston are really the only two who get left out).

#20 St. Mary’s 21-2 (10-0, 1^st in West Coast Conference) @ #14 Creighton 20-2 (10-1, 1^st in Missouri Valley Conference)

Why Creighton over Murray St? Two reasons I’m not completely sold on Murray St, yes they are undefeated, yes they have 21 wins, but the Strength of Schedule is not there and Creighton’s overall resume is going to look better to the committee. The second reason being Wichita St and Creighton are in the same conference, they can’t play eachother. The Gaels and Bluejays have high RPIs and both boast double digit wining streaks. This will likely be the primetime game on Saturday night.

Wichita St 18-4 (9-2, 2^nd in WCC) @ #9 Murray St 21-0 (9-0, 1^st in Ohio Valley Conference)

As said before Creighton and Murray St are 1A and 1B for me. So it only makes sense to give the Racers the second best team available. This is the best chance for Murray St to prove me wrong and for the Shockers it is just another away game that will go very well in their bid for an at-large if they can’t win Arch Madness.

Long Beach St 16-6 (9-0, 1st in Big West) @ Oral Roberts 20-4 (12-0, 1st in Summit)

My #4 home vs my #4 away team – undefeated in their conferences, RPIs in the mid 40s and 36 wins between the two teams. Oral Roberts is looking to get back to the tournament for the first time since 2008 the third of three straight trips. Led by Casper Ware, the 49ers were a win away from going back to the Big Dance, after a 3 year self-imposed probation that spanned 2008-2010.

Northern Iowa 14-9 (4-7, 7th in MVC) @ Cleveland State 18-4 (8-2, 1st in Horizon League)

While these two teams don’t have a history against eachother, both bring a level of recognition as they have made their names in the NCAA tourney. CSU with their win against Wake Forest in 2009 and UNI over Kansas is 2010. The Panthers are the only team to make a TV game not ranked in the Top 4 of their conference, however they have the benefit of having played 17 of their 21 games against teams in the RPI, so they have a nice little number next to their name there. Often times the selections have to do with regional travel. While Nevada might be a better match-up the 1600 extra miles aren’t. So with a very small slate of teams worthy from the away side, this match-up makes more sense and would help both teams out.

Akron 14-7 (6-1, 1st in Mid-American Conference) @ Iona 16-5 (8-2, T2nd in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference

I don’t really know what Iona is, ranked high in RPI, ranked high in the mid-major poll and they are the perfect example of how not having any games against really bad teams is better than beating average teams. After the starting the year 2-5 Akron has shot up 100 spots in the RPI over the past month by winning 12 of their last 14 games. They lead the MAC East (and would be the overall 1 seed in the MAC Tourney at this point).

Nevada 18-3 (7-0, 1st in Western Athletic Conference) @ Weber St 16-4 (8-1, 1st in Big Sky)

The Big Sky is not a well known conference, the WAC is a little bit better known but neither one if all that great. In what looks like a regional match-up, the Wolfpack and the Wildcats are both close in RPI, both close in wins but neither one is really looking at an at-large. The winner likely gets the edge when NCAA determines who is the last 14 and who is the first 15.

Valparaiso 15-8 (8-3, 2nd in HL) @ Ohio 17-4 (5-2, T2 in MAC)

If the MAC and the Horizon League would schedule a weekend a la the ACC/Big Ten it would make BracketBuster projections even tougher. It’s impossible to please everyone, Ohio could easily complain about drawing the biggest RPI differential of the TV match-ups. But these teams both have similar Strength of Schedule and this is a good regional match

Drake 13-9 (6-5, T3rd in MVC) @ South Dakota St. 17-6 (9-2, 2nd in Summit)

Drake pulled of a huge Triple OT win Friday night against Wichita St to secure a spot on TV and pull within 4 games of MVC leaders Creighton. Despite being 13-9, a down year for the away teams probably had them in anyway. This match-up helps South Dakota St, a win against a MVC team might give them the confidence to get past Oral Roberts in the Summit Conference tourney, but not enough for an at-large. The MVC is going to get 2 teams in, but Drake isn’t one of them right now. As the committee says “what have you done for me lately,” they need this game as well and need to get the 3 seed in the MVC tourney.

UNC Asheville 16-7 (11-1, 1st in Big South) @ George Mason 18-5 (10-1, 1st in Colonial Athletic Conference)

Newsflash the CAA is not as good as it was last year. But they still have 4 teams making it on TV, that’s because they have 3 teams with 17+ wins. George Mason’s 18 wins are not impressive whatsoever and as they are currently the leader in the conference they are likely looking at a 14 or 15 seed. This out of a conference that put a team in the Final Four last season. The leader in the Big South, UNC-Asheville isn’t exactly the win that will sway the committee but it would be GMU’s 3^rd best win on the year (they still play VCU twice though).

Drexel 17-5 (9-2, T2 in CAA) @ Davidson 15-5 (9-1, 1st in Southern)

I really wanted to send UNC Asheville to Davidson, but that would have left Drexel going to GMU, VCU, New Mexico St or Loyola MD. Had I sent them to MD. I would have been stuck with Old Dominion going to New Mex St. That doesn’t work from a regional standpoint. So this is what you get.

Texas-Arlington 15-5 (7-0, in Southland) @ New Mexico St 15-7 (5-2, 2nd in WAC)

I told you the away teams are not very good. Texas-Arlington is undefeated in conference play and by virtue of not making them travel to the East Coast they play the Aggies.

Buffalo 12-6 (5-2, T2 in MAC) @ Virginia Commonwealth 18-5 (9-2, T2nd in CAA)

I actually kicked Kent State out of a home game and moved Buffalo in. The MAC doesn’t deserve 4 teams, not when the Horizon only gets 2. Buffalo’s numbers are just as good as the Golden Flashes if not better (Since their win against WVU, what has Kent State really done)? Plus there aren’t enough good away teams. VCU trails George Mason by 1 game in the CAA (part of a three way tie). The tourney run from last year grabs one of the final home spots (considering Butler is really bad this season).

Old Dominion 14-9 (9-2, T2nd in CAA) @ Loyola Maryland 16-5 (9-2, 1st in MAAC)

Loyola MD replaced Kent State as the last home team. And minutes later replaced Iona at the top of the MAAC Standings (literally happened as I typed) and I will probably be wrong on this. The Greyhounds sports a better record, a better RPI and essentially the same strength of schedule. Kent St might draw more people and interest, but we are looking for the best match-ups. The teams most likely to be in the tournament. Right now Kent State is 4^th in their DIVISION not league DIVISION. Loyola Md is in a three-way tie for 1st in the MAAC

Standings are as of 4:15pm on Sunday - there are still some game to be played today. But none that will effect these projections.

Christmas Album #2

2011-11-29T13:31:00.006-05:00

Last week we spoke about rare traditions and how They're Not Listening isn't your typical blog. Well this week's album is not your typical music album, let alone Christmas album. It's not everyday that a band headed by the second incarnation of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Black Ranger releases a Christmas album. A pat on the back to the first person to figure out which other Power Ranger has some type of musical career going on in their post ninja karate action careers.

Johnny Yong Bosch (lead vocals and rhythm guitar) heads Eyeshine, an "edge rock" group out of West Hills, California. The group self described "edge rock" as being on the edge of sounding like punk, alt rock or on the edge of sounding like (insert cool band here). Most of the time they say they're "on the edge of sounding good." Maurice Salmin (drums, backing vocals, piano), Crystal Mesina (bass, backing vocals) and Ji Ho "Daniel" Lee (lead guitar, backing vocals) round out the current lineup.

Xmas, the groups 7th studio album since 2008, is a digital only release. And can be found on iTunes, Amazon and Eyeshine's website www.Eyeshine.net.

Similar to She & Him's album (reviewed last week), the eight song album features all cover songs of classic Christmas songs and carols. However there is nothing soft, sweet and cute about any of these tracks.

Eyeshine's description of "edge rock" makes perfect sense when you hear them. They sound kind of like a lot of well known bands. For instance take We Wish You a Merry Christmas, the opening track on the album. It's like they kidnapped Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World and told him to compose, play guitar and do backing vocals on the track.

Or the albums third track, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. You didn't realize Billie Joe Armstrong was a featured artist on this album did you? Well he's not and nobody else from Green Day helped on this track either.

Eyeshine takes some risk, taking traditional Christmas songs and turning them into Alt Rock anthems. They succeed at what many groups before them fail to do, acknowledging that Christmas isn't about being bigger, louder and faster. Christmas is about something more.

They give each song a different feel than ever before, but don't get caught up in making every song sound like them. It's like listening to 8 different groups perform 8 different songs all arranged for the same instrumentation. Jingle Bells and Come All Ye Faithful are great examples of this but Eyeshine is at it's best on Joy To the World.

Xmas is a fresh "edgy" new take on classic songs with tremendous re-listen value. It's good for the whole family and it won't get boring like Twisted Sister's "A Twisted Christmas" or most other rock band Christmas albums for that matter. Not bad at all for a guy who spent his earlier years riding around on a Mastodon Dinozord.

Christmas Songs

2011-11-21T15:50:00.002-05:00

It is rare when you come across a blog with such traditions as They're Not Listening. For example not posting anything for months at a time and coming back for a few weeks only to disappear again. Another historical tradition being that nothing said here is ever useful. These are traditions that will never be broken. However for the next few weeks we take a step back from the traditional useless sports commentary and replace it with one of my favorite things...

Today we'll check out a couple tracks from the 2011 release A Very She & Him Christmas.

First of all you can't go wrong with Zooey Deschanel's "nostalgic 1950's, innocent, husky" voice in any song. Whether it's the Winnie the Pooh theme song, an adorable song made up on the spot to deal with an embarrassing moment from her quirky, adorable FOX show "The New Girl" or a very respectful and beautiful take on The National Anthem at the World Series. In Elf she says "the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear," and then sings an a capella version of Santa Claus is Coming To Town as the townspeople join in.

She & Him combines Zooey's vocals, piano and ukulele skills with M. Ward's guitar and production chops. This is their 3rd studio album, following the aptly named Volume 1 and Volume 2. A Very She & Him Christmas is a 12 track offering of some of the most well known and loved Christmas songs.

Their cover of Little Saint Nick originally recorded by the Beach Boys in 1963 is clever with Zooey providing backing vocals over her own solo. While it doesn't quite match up to Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, it certainly beats Sugar Ray's "carbon copy" of 2001 and the awful attempt Captain and Tenille tried to do a few years back.

Their syncopated take on Sleigh Ride is fun and bouncy for a song that tends to smack you in the face every time you hear it. Like the entire album its mellow and not out of control, a step back from The Ronettes and the Boston Pops version, seriously how many times do we need to hear the trumpet half-valve glissando (no that's not Wikipedia) every year. I still prefer Relient K's version from 2007, that appeared on Yo Gabba Gabba! but this one certainly makes the cut.

She & Him take on a bunch of songs written 50-70 years ago and give them an update without making them sound to modern. Where they succeed they also fail, making old songs sound old isn't all that difficult. What can really be done with The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire), Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas or Silver Bells? For a pop culture icon who is often described as "adorkable," I would have liked to see She & Him take a few risks maybe with McCartney's Wonderful Christmastime or at least something a little more dorky then the same old classics.

I'm not saying that The Pogues "Fairytale of New York" was in the cards for this group and based on the chemistry lacking take on "Baby, It's Cold Outside" it probably would have never worked. Simply flipping the roles of the guy and the girl does not a great track make.

It's too fast paced and never really makes you feel like they are singing to eachother. What makes this song so fun is the developing story which you get none of in this version. You would be better off listening to Rainn Wilson and Selma Blair's GAP Commercial.

A Very She & Him Christmas is definitely worth the listen, it's calm and collected and very likely to be heard anywhere you go shopping (even though Border's doesn't exist anymore). They released it on Vinyl but I'm listening to electronic downloads, so the vinyl production quality doesn't really show up. If you want to hear new takes on the classics without screeching vocals, weird electric guitar synths or headbanging drumbeats this is your album. However, it's safe and bland at times . Zooey is one of the cutest things on the planet, if you are already a fan this won't change that. But if you aren't it probably won't change that either.

Who gets the ball?

2011-03-22T13:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday on ESPN 850 WKNR, Chris Fedor proposed the question "You're down 1, the shot clock is turned off. Who do you want taking the shot to win you the NCAA title?" My immediate answer was not one that any basketball expert would expect. It's easy to say Jimmer Fredette, he's the leading scorer in the country. It's easy to say Kemba Walker, he has carried his UConn team through 5 straight games in the Big East tournament. Jacob Pullen, Harrison Barnes, Nolan Smith and Kyrie Irving, I'll give them to you. But I'm still going to stick with my first answer.

Matt Howard is 16-3 in March (8-3 in NCAA Tourney games, the National Championship game against Duke was played in April). Howard through two 2011 games already has two game winning buckets. In the first game he got an offensive rebound and a putback. In the second game he had to make a free throw.

You can say all you want about those shots but Matt Howard's 89 offensive rebounds accounts for 25% of all of Butler's 2010-2011 totals. It makes sense that he would have been in that position. When you account for the fact he shoots 51% from the field inside the three point line, there really isn't much of a surprise. Meanwhile his free throw percentage is 78% for his career, and he accounted for 30% of the Butler's made free throws this season.

Using John Hollinger's efficiency ratings. Matt Howard ranks 17th, Kemba Walker 15th (Norris Cole is sandwiched in between the two at 16) Hollinger's rating is the overall rating of a player's per-minute statistical production, the average is always 15. Howard stands at 29.44 with Walker .14 points ahead of him.

How about Jimmer Fredette. Hollinger's Efficiency stats has him #7 in the country. Here you can see a comparison of Howard to Walker at statsheet.com. In another statsheet.com comparison, Fredette's offensive rating is actually lower than Walker's and Howard's. The formula for Offensive Rating is shown below.

Meaning that while Fredette may score more points then Walker or Howard, it takes him more possession to do so. While the website shows that Walker and Fredette may be better players in the the clutch the three are very tight in every other category. As pointed out before Howard has started 11 tournament games. Walker has only played in 7. Fredette has started and played in 5. And while they may be a great players, experience counts in the NCAA tourney.

When you look a bit further into a stat called True Shooting percentage, which accounts for, three pointers being worth an extra point as well as free throws. Essentially giving you a points per shooting possession ratio you see that the true shooting percentages of the three players is
61.3% for Howard, 59.7% for Fredette and 54.7% for Walker.

Of course if you are down three, the answer is simple you are going to Jon Diebler. Diebler leads the True Shooting percentage category with a 72.5%, three percentage points higher than the next player with at least 300 FG attempts, that player is Derrick Williams from Arizona.

So you can have your Lottery pick guards to take the shot, but I'm gonna stick with an undersize power forward who I've seen hit way to many tough shots for my liking.

How Did We Do

2011-02-01T13:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I predicted the BracketBuster match-ups. While I missed out on most of the game times, my success rate was fairly high.

Fri., 2/18	7 p.m.	Virginia Commonwealth at Wichita State	ESPN2
Fri., 2/18	9 p.m.	Kent State at Drexel	ESPNU
Sat., 2/19	11 a.m.	Hofstra at Wright State	ESPNU
Sat., 2/19	1 p.m.	Austin Peay at Fairfield	ESPNU
Sat., 2/19	3 p.m.	Iona at Liberty	ESPNU
Sat., 2/19	5 p.m.	Missouri State at Valparaiso	ESPN2
Sat., 2/19	5 p.m.	Vermont at College of Charleston	ESPNU
Sat., 2/19	7 p.m.	George Mason at Northern Iowa	ESPN2
Sat., 2/19	9 p.m.	No. 21 Utah State at St. Mary’s (CA)	ESPN2
Sat., 2/19	11 p.m.	Montana at Long Beach State	ESPN2
Sun., 2/20	1 p.m.	Cleveland State at Old Dominion	ESPN or ESPN2

The match-ups are shown above. From yesterday's blog we hit 19 of the 22 teams correct. Missing the ball on Austin Peay, Iona and Liberty. Instead replacing those 3 teams with Morehead St, James Madison and the one I left blank.

We also hit 5 of the 11 match-ups spot on, including all three Horizon League squads (as well as Utah St/St Mary's and Montana/Long Beach St). Were it not for the flip-flop of George Mason and VCU, we would be looking at 7 correct. The two late games on Saturday night were as I expected, those were the only two correct game times.

I can't fault the committee for Austin Peay over Morehead St, I in fact discussed that yesterday. Morehead St beat Austin Peay head to head, but overall Austin Peay has a slightly better resume. However, James Madison got shafted. No TV game and a match-up against an 8-12 Miami of Ohio team. They are the #67 team in RPI, have a better record than both Hofstra and Drexel, yet both of those teams got in on TV. Add to the fact that the Dukes have 4 out of conference wins against RPI Top 100 teams, and it leads to a mistake by the committee.

Bracket Busters

2011-01-31T13:11:00.000-05:00

Tonight at 6:30 ESPNU will air the "Bracket Buster Selection Show," in which they will announce the 22 teams that will meet up in 11 nationally televised games.

From February 18 -20th, 114 teams from 15 "mid-major" conference will play, for a total of 57 games. While the schedule is subject to change, two games will be played Friday night, eight will be played throughout the day on Saturday. The final game will be played at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Here are my thoughts on the 22 teams that should be seen in one of the featured games on ESPN2 or ESPNU over that weekend.

Friday 7pm -
Missouri St Bears 17-5 (9-2) @ Valparaiso Crusaders 16-6 (8-2)
The Bears fueled by Kyle Weems (16.5 ppg, 6.9 rpg) sit in a tie at the top of the Missouri Valley Conference standings. Valparaiso, after beating 2010 NCAA Tourney runner-up Butler on Saturday, are half a game back of Cleveland State in the Horizon League. While the RPIs are 36 and 54, Valpo's 103-102 win in December at Oakland, makes this match-up an intriguing one.

Friday 9pm -
George Mason Patriots 17-5 (9-2) @ Wichita St Shockers18-4 (9-2)
The other team at the top of the MVC is Wichita St. All four of their losses come against RPI Top 100 teams, wins against Evansville (RPI 117) and Indiana St (115) are their only chances at an at-large. A home match-up against the #33 RPI team in the country, could be make or break for them. George Mason could come into this game with the Colonial League title nearly wrapped up as 4 of their next 5 games are against teams in the Top 5 of the conference.

Saturday 11 am -
Kent St Golden Flashes 14-7 (4-2) @ Charleston Cougars 15-7 (8-2)
A bad loss at Davidson on Saturday dropped the Cougars out of the Southern League league and nearly dropped them out of the Top 100 RPI. As high as 74 in the past week, they now sit t 90. Kent St on the other hand has jumped from 96 to 70 after wins against Miami (OH) and Ball St.

Saturday 1 pm -
Morehead St Eagles @ Drexel Dragons
Austin Peay and Morehead St are within a game of each other in the Ohio Valley Conference, RPIs at 110 and 114. Choosing between the two who both play away games this year is very tough. However the Eagles knocked off the Governors in the teams most recent meeting. Morehead St also boasts home wins against Kent St and Charleston (the two teams playing right before them) I have them taking on Drexel, the Dragons are an inconsistent team. Beating Lousivlle by 6 and then getting beat by an even more inconsistent Syracuse team by 28. The RPIs aren't a perfect match but with Drexel barely over .500 in a league with 3 teams hovering in the Top 50, they will need this one.

Saturday 3 pm -
Vermont Catamounts 16-5 (7-2) @ James Madison Dukes 17-6 (7-4)
The fans at James Madison will argue that they deserve better but with so good mid-majors skipping the program this year (Harvard, Butler, Gonzaga, Oakland, Coastal Carolina) the picking are slim. JMU had already played Kent St earlier in the year breaking up that match-up. The Catamounts are no slouch though, while their strength of schedule is weak they rebound the hell out of the ball. With a 6'6 freshman forward, averaging 10 per game, the team is 27th in the country in rebounding. James Madison is 116th in the category.

Saturday 5 pm ESPNU
Hofstra Pride 14-8 (8-3) @ Wright St Raiders 14-9 (7-4)
After losing two straight conference games Hofstra will look to bounce back against George Mason on Wednesday the 2nd. But a win at the Wright State's Nutter Center in Dayton might be enough to push them on to the bubble. Charles Jenkins has been lighting up the scoresheet for the Pride, averaging 23.3 a night. Wright St counters with a trio of guards all averaging double digits.

Saturday 5 pm ESPN2
Virginia Commonwealth Rams 18-5 (10-1) @ Northern Iowa Panthers 17-6 (8-3)
A big win against UCLA coupled with a questionable loss to South Florida, makes me wonder what VCU is really made of. They lead the Colonial Athletic Conference and have won nine straight. Northern Iowa has won 7 straight, including two away games at conference leaders Missouri St and Wichita St. the Panthers, last years tournament surprise, would need a win here to even think about an at-large bid, they are without a signature win and rank 290th in points, 332nd in rebounds and 315th in assists.

Saturday 7 pm
Cleveland St Vikings 20-3 (9-2) @ Old Dominion Monarchs 17-5 (8-3
CSU is one of two 20 win teams in the BracketBusters this year. They are another team without a big win, looking for a shot at an at-large in case they don't win the tournament. CSU is the #30 RPI team in the country, Old Dominion is the #31 RPI team in the country. The two have been within 1 or 2 spots of each other for the past 2 weeks. It's a good match-up between the two highest rated mid-major conferences (A-10 and C-USA excluded) in RPI.

Saturday 9pm
Utah St Aggies 20-2 (9-0) @ St. Mary's Gaels 18-4 (6-1)
The argument can be made that both of these teams are already in, and having them play each other doesn't benefit anyone. It does give us a good basketball game between two teams that are very similar in talent. St Mary's is the best home team available while Utah St and Cleveland St would both state strong cases for being the bet away team. Logistically this game makes more sense. You have the WAC leader vs the WCC leader, both in the RPI Top 40

Saturday 11pm
Montana Grizzlies 16-5 (8-1) @ Long Beach St 49ers 13-10 (8-2)
It's unlikely that one of the marquee games would be played at 11 o'clock. So you have a couple teams from out West who are hovering between 95-110 in the RPI match-up against eachother. The two teams lead their respective conference (Big Sky and Big West).

Sunday 1pm
Somebody @ Fairfield Stags 16-4 (9-1)
As I said there are too many good teams skipping out on the BracketBusters, partially because they don't get anything out of it. Which leaves the field slim for good match-ups that don't make people angry. Fairfield belongs here in a televised match-up the only question is who do the people in charge want to throw in there. They might just throw a team in for the sake of viewership.

I'll be back after the announcements with commentary.

It's Tribe Time Part Deux

2010-11-13T09:31:00.001-05:00

Ok good day, this is the Free Agency part of the blog, you can read it at your Free Agency parties or by yourself on Christmas Eve if there's nothing else to do. Good day eh, in case you thought I wasn't on this part.

There are lots of good ideas in here so read and don't get stuck.

On the first day of the Free Agency blog we talked about a back-up catcher and the Indians signing Adam Dunn to help rehabilitate an offense that ranked 26th in runs scored, 24th in home runs and 23rd in average.

Today we will look into the middle of the infield and the hot corner. It's always interesting to see what route teams take with the middle of their infield. This year's World Series saw the Rangers with Kinsler and Andrus, two guys that when healthy will both bat .270 and steal 35 bases. With the Giants there was Freddy Sanchez and Juan Uribe. Sanchez is a career .300 hitter with no pop, who field well. Uribe is a .250 hitter with a 20 HR power.

The Indians with Cabrera and Valbuena don't really have either of those combinations. Cabrera is a Kinsler type player, but Valbuena is awful. He doesn't hit for power, he doesn't hit for average and he's a very average if not below average fielder, 10 errors in 2010; granted only 4 at 2nd base.

2B- Luis Valbuena is not the answer, but at 28 neither is Jayson Nix. Jason Donald is likely the best option. There are 2 players I like here. The first being 32 year old Orlando Hudson. O-Dog keeps getting one year mercenary deals and would be unlikely to sign with a team that isn't likely to compete until 2012. But he's a veteran and respected around the league as a good clubhouse guy. Last year's team was missing a true veteran, Russel Branyan and Shelley Duncan are far from being veterans. The other guy I like and is a bit more likely is Jorge Cantu. Cantu struggled a bit after being traded form Florida to Texas in a mid-season trade this year. The two years before that he averaged 75 runs, 22 homers and 97 RBI. Recently Cantu has played a lot of 1st and 3rd, but he does have experience at second. Not a bad choice as an extra infielder.

I don't know what the 28 year old Cantu would cost but it would probably be to the tune of 4.5m a year. Hudson would cost about the same. Put on your "thinking tooks" and try to figure out why signing both of these guys might not be a bad decision.

SS - As long as Asdrubal Cabrera stays healthy the Indians are set here. Jason Donald is the back-up. Derek Jeter isn't coming here and there aren't shortstops out there

3B - Andy Marte is not getting better. Nobody else is better than Andy Marte. Sounds like one of those word problems. The Tribe is not going to sign Adrian Beltre, they might invite some guys to camp but the options on the left are very weak this year. (political innuendo in case you didn't catch it)

If your "thinking took" worked you figured it out. Binging in Orlando Hudson would fill the void in case Cabrera got hurt. Cantu can play 3rd. Now all of a sudden if one guy gets hurt in an infield of Dunn, Hudson, Cabrera, Cantu. You can throw Donald, Valbuena or Marte in and still have a competent infield.

So yesterday we spent 10.75m today we add an extra 9m to that. To go to 19.75m, bumping payroll around 50m.
Now of course we won't sign all of these guys. If we get any of them we become better. I'd love to have Adam Dunn, but I'd rather have Cantu, Torrealba and Hudson combined for the same price.

Come back tomorrow for outfielders, and pitchers on Tuesday.

It's Tribe Time

2010-11-12T13:38:00.000-05:00

I'm back and just in time for MLB Free Agency, luckily for us Clevelanders we have nothing to worry about. Shin Soo Choo will be taking his talents to South Korea where we will need him to win the Asian Games so he will not have to serve his army time.

The 2010 Indians did the exact opposite of what was expected, they didn't hit and they pitched pretty well. With Santana, Cabrera and Sizemore healthy one can hope that the team will improve in 2011. However, there are some pieces in Free Agency that can certainly make the team more competitive.

Catcher - Carlos Santana is recovering well from his surgery, but that doesn't mean he won't have a setback. Lou Marson and Chris Gimenez are not serviceable options. A back-up catcher needs to be able to do 2 things, be good defensive players and bat at least .250. These guys combined to bat right around .194
---The Indians don't need to get Victor Martinez back, but taking a run at Yorvit Torrealba. Torrealba batted .270 last year with the Padres and has a career fielding percentage of .995. Torrealba signed a 2 year/$6m deal with the Rockies in 2007. Last year the 32 year old, signed a 1 year deal worth $750,000, coming off a year in which he batted .291. At that price he's a great fit back-up, for a team with a young catcher like Santana, a major upgrade.

C Total Spending: $830,000

First Base - Is Matt LaPorta ready yet? The guy doesn't hit for power, doesn't hit for average and is in his prime now. Of course the Indians are spinning OF Michael Brantley as the real "piece" in the Sabathia trade. It's because they're aren't quite sure they believe in LaPorta yet.
---I'd love to sign Adam Dunn, through the age of 30, Baseball Reference compares Dunn to Harmon Killebrew, Reggie Jackson and Ralph Kiner. What's crazy about Dunn is that he has been Top 5 in strikeouts in the NL every year since 2002, but he's also been Top 5 in walks. Add to that his 35+ HR power. Dunn has not hit historically well in Cleveland and I don't see management putting up enough money to sign him. But I think a deal similar to the Juan Gonzalez deal of 2001 (1 year/$10m) would be ideal.
A few other options could be Derrek Lee, Lyle Overbay or Aubrey Huff. The Indians don't have much in the minors.

1B Total Spending: $10,000,000

Come back tomorrow for 2nd, 3rd and short, Sunday for the outfield and Monday for pitchers.

The Cleveland Cavaliers

2010-07-12T15:20:00.000-04:00

There is some alternate universe/dimension or something like that in which LeBron James doesn't stab us with the proverbially sharp object. In this alternate universe things are much different for Cavaliers fans today. And that is because in this other place LeBron James was never a Cavalier. The Cavs lose the NBA Draft Lottery and end up with the 2nd pick. The Grizzlies end up with LeBron, they never trade Pau Gasol and change the landscape of the NBA in 2010. But before we get to today we should go through each of LeBron's 7 years with the Cavs and show you how it might have played out in a week long series.

2003-2004

Losing the NBA Draft Lottery and losing the first LeBron sweepstakes is tough for Gordon Gund, but he doesn't immediately sell the team. They still bring in Paul Silas as the head coach to coach their #2 overall draft pick, Dwyane Wade. While Wade was the 5th pick in the draft, he was one of 3 franchise players available. At this point the Cavs still have Carlos Boozer, and drafted Milicic and Bosh doesn't make sense. LeBron was a guard when he came to the Cavs, so they probably take Wade of Carmelo.

Because it's Dwyane Wade and not LeBron we keep using this logo

The Cavaliers begin the year with a starting 5 of

Z, Boozer, Ira Newble, Ricky Davis, LeBron

Alternative universe lineup

Z, Boozer, Ira Newble, Ricky Davis, Dwyane Wade

In December the Cavs ship Davis, Chris Mihm, Michael Stewart and a 2nd rounder to Boston for Eric Williams, Kedrick Brown and Tony Battie. Later on in the season they ship Darius Miles and his thick-impenetrable-by-Silas-skull to Portland for Jeff McInnis and Ruben Boumtje Boumtje.

Still without a true shooting guard, McInnis is inserted into the starting lineup as point guard allowing LeBron to slide up to the 2, even though eventually he ends up being a small forward. The same is done with Wade, and he plays the 2 for this season.

According to basketball-reference.com (which will be used alot along with 82Games.com for this blog) Win-Shares which is a product of numerous different stat percentages is an interesting way of figuring out how a team performed. LeBron was only the Cavaliers 3rd most important player in terms of Win-Share adding 5.1 wins to the team over his season. Dwyane Wade had a 4.6 W/S for the Heat. Meaning that if Wade took LBJ's place and everything stayed the same the Cavaliers finish with a record 34-48 instead of 35-47.

All in all nothing huge changes by swapping LeBron in D-Wade in 2003-2004. They still stay in the same draft spot for 2004. They still don't have a legitimate 3 and they draft Luke Jackson out of Oregon. But that's a story for tomorrow, when it really gets fun.

Welcome Back

2010-06-30T10:41:00.000-04:00

It's been a few days since we last spoke. I apologize. As a Cleveland sports fan, I'm used to the depressing feeling of losing a game you weren't supposed to. But it still hurts. For those of you that have ever gone out early in a tournament or lost a big game, you understand the feelings that come along with it. The rest of the day blows and all you can do is think about what went wrong. Now imagine being the President of the Second-Guessing Bob Bradley club I spent one full day trying to figure out why Clark started, another trying to figure out what he said to Clark when he pulled him in the 30th minute, another wondering who could be the next coach (since in all likelihood its not me) and yesterday replaying Ghana vs USA over and over again with real tactics and better personnel decisions on FIFA10

But today is a new day. If you've never visited the site Yanks Abroad I suggest you do so. Some interesting stuff, plus you get to see all the guys that play overseas that you probably have never heard of like Erik Bejaminsen, Jamil Fearrington and Connor Tobin.

Looking at the US Roster from 2010 and going forward into 2014. The 23 man roster really probably won't have that much turnover.

At 42, Hahneman is obviously done, but Howard will only be 35 and barring some injury will still be at the top of his game. If Friedel EVER retires Guzan might actually get a chance to play.

Guys like Cherundolo, Bocanegra, Goodson and DeMerit are probably not going to be back at 35, 35, 32 and 34 respectively. Onyewu at 32 might be, especially if he starts getting opportunities at AC Milan.

Bradley took 9 midfielders to South Africa and there is a good chance that 7 will be back. Beasley got his last go around, though might still get some chances in qualifying. Clark will be 31 and how any coach could invite him back after his horrific performances in his last 2 FIFA tournaments (yeah, don't forget the "just add water" Red Card at the Confederations Cup) is beyond me. Donovan at 32 probably won't have the same pace, but will hopefully have moved to England and will have escaped the MLS in the prime of his career. Dempsey is actually a question in my mind. Can a player who doesn't track back that well now, and really only shines in the most opportune of moments be a guy you rely on at 31?

As for the strikers Buddle and Gomez are done at 33 and 32 (and they aren't exactly Cuahtemoc Blanco) Findlay will be 28, but I don't think he is going to get any faster in those 4 years which doesn't do any good

So let's argue that Onyewu, Dempsey and even Goodson are asked back in 2014. That leaves us with 1 keeper spot and 7 outfield players. Essentially returning two-thirds of the team.

I have a 15 player shortlist that might fill those 8 spots in order of who I think will. I already have my keeper, and I've got a 2014 starting lineup.

Chris Seitz is my goalkeeper. Unless you decide that the 3rd keeper needs to be a Veteran. But by that time the veterans are going to be old.

1. Freddy Adu - Adu will be 25 in 2014, interestingly enough Freddy could have already played in 2 World Cups and beaten the US twice had he picked a different Allegiance replaces Gomez

2. Charlie Davies - Coming back from the injury will be tough, but imagine having Altidore and Davies together for 3 years of qualifying (see, Forlan and Suarez) replaces Findlay

3. Robbie Rogers - Rogers needs to move overseas, but he is one of the best wingers in the pool, because he can play both sides, has speed and is willing to shoot and cross. Unlikely he takes Donovan's place but certainly in the 23. replaces Beasley

4. Jermaine Jones - So much was made of his switching to the US, but whether it makes a difference will depend on whether he plays in 2014. He will be 33, but that's not OLD for a defensive mid. replaces Clark

5. Marvell Wynne - Raw Talent comes to mind every time I watch this kid play. The guy has blazing speed and looks much bigger than his 5'9 listed height. I believe in 4 years he could develop into the type of RB that teams really worry about (Maicon, Sergio Ramos etc.). At one point I was telling anyone who would listen they should experiment with him up top, unfortunately nobody would listen. replaces Cherundolo

6. Kenny Cooper - Some coaches love big, lurping strikers. I don't mind them if you are winning by a goal with 10 minutes or down by a goal and you have to start playing kickball for the last 10 minutes. Cooper is 6'3 and would give the US some presence in the air. Something that Buddle never got a chance to do. replaces Buddle

7. Michael Orozco - Another guy who could do himself good to go outside of North America. In 2008 was one of the best U23 defenders at the Olympics until a stupid red card against Nigeria. replaces Bocanegra

8. Sacha Kljestan - I know it sounds crazy, but the move to Anderlecht is going to benefit him. Kljestan was terrible for the US except for in that one game. He needs to develop consistency but clearly has the ability to play. replaces DeMerit

9. Edgar Castillo

10. Chad Marshall

11. Brad Evans

12. Marcus Tracy

13. Eddie Gaven

14. Dax McCarty

15. Alejandro Bedoya

With that here is your 2014 Starting XI (of course depending on the draw)

GK Howard

LB Spector CB Onyewu CB Edu RB Wynne

LM Donovan CM Bradley CM Jones RM Holden

ST Altidore ST Davies

SUBS: (GK) Guzan, Seitz (DEF) Goodson, Bornstein, Orozco (MID) Feilhaber, Rogers, Torres, Dempsey, Kljestan (FOR) Adu, Cooper

This line-up of course does not reflect the fact that I am a late bloomer and might just make it at 26.

Taking a Break from World Cup

2010-06-25T13:12:00.000-04:00

I'm taking a break from World Cup (at least I'm pretending to) for a little bit. For my long time non-listener's (still working on a nickname for the 4 of you) you know that there are few things in our tagline that mean anything. A few people complained about the last post being a puff piece. Well get ready for some hard-hitting news, because I need to take a few short moments of your precious time by telling you about a new adventure in my life.

You see when it comes to $5 Footlongs, I am very much like Bob Bradley. I have my favorite and I don't like to go off course from it. Bradley's choice sandwich is a Ricardo Clark on Bornstein Rye, and it takes him three meals before he decides to change anything. My lineup is a Spicy Italian, something Marcelo Lippi would know nothing about, on Italians Herbs and Cheese. I match up only the finest in gourmet Genoa Salami & Pepperoni with the same vegetables every time... lettuce, olives, pickles and banana peppers with their Chipotle Southwest Sauce. Once in a while I bring Jalapeno on in the 77th minute just for the free kick. On a warm day I eat it cold, on a cold day I eat it toasted. It's an old standby and a clinical finisher.

But ever since Subway started advertising the Orchard Chicken Salad sandwich, I've been a bit intrigued. Today was the day that destiny chose for me to meet up with the Orchard Chicken Salad, and to be completely honest it was kind of like Ivory Coast. It was good, but could not carry the hopes of an entire stomach on it's shoulders. All of this is aside from the fact that the Wal-MartWay no longer has $5 Footlongs (apparently North Korea has gotten to them as well). This meant I had to venture over to the Subway on the other side of Severance, uphill both ways in a snowstorm.

And then I found $5 dollars (for those of you who know what that means).

The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius

2010-06-24T14:37:00.000-04:00

That's a song from Hair. We do things a little different here, so read on and get used to it.

It's been 44 games in South Africa and through those games we've seen the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. But, of course hair has a lot to do with how well your team performs. As any good coach would tell you, it's not how you play the game it's how you look. As a dedicated follower of fashion, They're Not Listening will break down a match-up between the World Cup 2010 Bad Hair Team and the 2010 World Cup 2010 Good Hair Team. I apologize for all the links but you will be able to see both teams Starting XI at the bottom of the page. Of course being a creative American coach, I'm putting both squads in a 4-4-2.

Goalkeepers

Bad Hair is much easier to spot than good Hair. In my preliminary examination three goalkeepers made the list. Those being Algeria's Faouzi Chaouchi, Italy's Gianluigi Buffon and Serbia's Vladimir Stojkovic. Choosing a starter of course was easy as Chaouchi's blunder against Slovenia kept him out of the next 2 tournament games. Buffon was hurt in the first game. The only keeper left was Stojkovic. Maybe it's the crest on the keeper kit, but despite the fact that he was able to stop a Lucas Podolski penalty kick in Serbia's 2nd game, Stojkovic's "Quest for the Holy Grail" cut bowed out of the tournament. Giving up 3 goals in 3 games.

No doubt about it when choosing, David James of England, as the starter for the Good Hair squad. He becomes one of many cornrowed players to find their way onto the squad. After subbing in more Robert Green, who sports a tidy fauxhawk, James pitched two vital shut-outs for a Three Lions that found it very hard to score on their own.

Defenders

6 players make their way onto the shortlist for each squad. For the Bad it's Argentina's Martin DeMichelis, Cameroon's Rigobert Song, France's Bacary Sagna, Germany's Philip Lahm, Japan's Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Portugal's Fabio Coentrao (you'll see his opponent in this shot later). I feel bad enough for Cameroon already, but whoever told Song the Davy Jones look was in should be revoked of speaking privileges. Sagna has to start, as he is the main contributor to this entire article. Since we need a centre-back I think we have to go with DeMichelis, little girls all over Argentina will be asking for the Martin at their local Barberia. I'm a huge Lahm fan but he's been around long enough for people to know that is not his natural hair color, we are going to slide him into the center. Tanaka sporting a samurai type do could start, Au Coentrao (get it, it's a pun) just managed to edge him out thanks to those wonderful roots.

The good are lead by another cornrowed Brit in Glen Johnson. Uruguay's Diego Lugano, Spain's Tommy inspired Carlos Puyol, New Zealand's Tony Lochhead. Those four fit the 4-4-2 well with two Spanish speakers in the middle and two English speakers out wide. Gerard Pique and Carlos Bocanegra just don't do enough to crack the starting lineup. Many call it a controversial decision, some call it a travesty to include Lugano and Puyol as the well-groomed centre back, but Lugano's Disneyesque combination of hair and eye color plus the fact his side have yet to concede a goal are the clinchers.

Midfielders

6 players find themselves on the list, including USA's Stuart Holden, Holden played 4 minutes against England, but managed to photobomb every picture of the US team in existence. Jeremy Toulalan of France, Keisuke Honda of Japan, Switzerland's Valon Behrami and New Zealand's Simon Elliot. To be fair Elliot is 36 years old and coming from a 22 year old who is already developing Landon Donovan-like power alleys. I'm excusing him from contention. Holden, Honda and Behrami all had the choice to style their hair the way they did. At 26, Toulalan should put down the Just for Men Touch of Gray and just stick with the classic Grecian Formula. Send Behrami and Holden out wide, with Honda as a CAM, Toulalan a CDM and play a diamond in the mid.

The race is on for complaints about Cristiano Ronaldo not making either team. But if I had to... I'd put him up there and not down here. Our final cornrowed player in the squad is Frenchman Flourent Malouda. While Zachary Quinto errr Cesc Fabregas of Spain and Gennaro Gattuso of Italy are paired up the central midfield by virtue of classy hair/beard combos. Finding a 4th midfielder is tough but as I said we are restricted to a 4-4-2. So in a quick bit of thinking I'm going to throw Dirk Kuyt out on the right wing. By the way Kuyt is a complete horsecrap pick, I know it. His hair is so great because he always works hard it always looks like he is working hard.

Strikers

The striker list goes on and on when it comes to bad hair. As I mentioned earlier Ivory Coast's Gervinho, who appears to have attached a Cleopatra wig on a bald head could be an option. You'd alway fancy a Drjibril Cisse spot on this list, the Frenchman's doo is not nearly as flamboyant this time around as in the past. Greece's is Georgios Samaras, Honduras' Walter Martinez and Slovenia's Milivoje Novakovic round out the list. None of these strikers have scored and none of them are going to advance into the Round of 16. I'm going to have to go solely based on worst hair. Cisse is at least creative in his hair failure and I understand that the economic crisis in Greece has meant fewer haircuts and razors to go around. But Novakovic has a bowl-cut combover and wears a headband. Unfortunately there are nor recent photos of the red and yellow highlights Martinez included in his braids. So we are going to have to go with Gervinho.

The New Zealand strike combo of Rory Fallon and Shane Smeltz clearly make the all-fauxhawk team, but putting both here might be a bit ambitous. Smeltz was able to score one of New Zealand's two goals and certainly deserves a chance to play with the other quality players on the Good Hair team. Smeltz will be paired up with Diego Forlan. Another controversial haircut decision. Forlan is my player of the tournament and with locks like that how couldn't he be included.

Jon Dahl Skywalker of Denmark misses out on both teams.

Unfortunately I can't format this so that it will look like a 4-4-2, you'll just have to imagine. In case you weren't sure I have each player listed in order.

GK Stojkovic, RB Sagna, CB DeMichelis, CB Lahm, LB Coentra, RM Holden, CDM Toulalan, CAM Honda, LM Behrami, ST Gervinho, ST Novakovic

GK James, RB Johnson, CB Lugano, CB Puyol, LB Lochhead, RM Kuyt, CM Gattuso, CM Fabregas, LM Malouda, ST Forlan, ST Smeltz

What do you think? Who'd I miss? Who wins? Bring on the comments.

Week 2 By the Numbers

2010-06-21T11:46:00.000-04:00

In Week 2 we saw 4 games went into the locker room 0-0, 1 ended up that way, in a game where neither keeper played their teams first game.

3 teams have yet to score, there are approximately 678 players on rosters who have yet to score. On the other hand 4 teams have not conceded yet, and 6 Goalkeepers who have played have yet to give up a goal.

67 goals scored (updated live through Spain/Honduras pardon any errors, since I know you all are going to double check), by 58 different players + 2 own goals. 7 players have scored multiple goals, 2 of them have scored in more than one game. Only 1 of those two has scored in the run of play. (Asamoah Gyan has netted 2 penalties)

Those 58 Players represent 18 Leagues, welcoming The Dutch Eredivisie (2), Greek Super League (2), A-League (1), Portuguese Liga (3), Belgian First Division (2)and MLS (1). The Spanish Primera added 14 goals to it's total after 4 two-goal games, and 1 hat tricks, they now stand at 15. Though the A-League only has one goal, it becomes the 1st League with its leading scorer to score. The EPL goes up to 9 and is the only other league in which the leading scorer has grabbed one.

4 more sets of teammates tallied... Forlan and Tiago (Atletico Madrid although Tiago is on lona form Juventus), Eto'o and Sneijder joined Maicon (Inter), Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) and Gonzalez joined Honda (CSKA Moscow).

Cards still outnumber goals by more than 2:1 as we have seen 136 total cards, 126 yellows, 10 reds, 5 straight reds. 10 players will miss their countries final game due to yellow card accumulation. Group D leads all groups with 28 total cards, Group C in second with 19 (Group H also at 19). Those groups will match up in the knockout round.

How about COMNEBOL still having not lost, sitting at 8-2-0, 26 points through 10 games. All 4 teams are likely through, although only 1 has clinched. Oceania is the only other undefeated region at 0-2-0. CAF is not nearly as pretty with 1-4-7, 8 points through 12 games. Of the 6, only 2 have reasonable chances to advance. UEFA, AFC and CONCACAF sit 10-8-8, 2-1-5, and 1-3-2, respectively.

Soccer City in Johannesburg has seen 13 goals scored, one goal for every 130 meters above sea level. Ellis Park in Johannesburg has seen 10 goals scored in 4 matches. Making it the 2nd highest Goals per Match stadium and the 2nd highest altitude stadium.

What to do on Wednesday 6/23

2010-06-18T16:55:00.001-04:00

For many of you Americans out there, (especially all of you that "Aren't Listening) you may be a bit confused. I know this soccer thing is confusing; the standings, the tiebreakers, the vuvuzelas. But honestly Wednesday is a pretty simple day for Sam's Army. We need to win.

For those of you who don't quite get soccer, let me put it this way. We can liken the game against Algeria on Wednesday as Game 6 of the League Championship Series. Right now we are up 3-2, unless you are Koman Coulibaly, then it's tied at 2. We need to win is the mentality, that keeps Game 7 from happening. When you win Game 6 of the ALCS you are in to the World Series. We already got through the Divisional Series in CONCACAF Qualifying, now we must fight through the LCS (Group Stage) in order to get the World Series (the knockout round).

Hopefully I've cleared that up.

Now, if we lose... we go home... So then why isn't this Game 7 if we go home with a loss? Well you see we need to win, but if we don't we still stand a chance.

So we don't need to win, but we need to win. You see a tie, keeps us alive. But you know what they say about ties? Do you really want to HAVE TO kiss your sister in order to stay alive. An interesting philosophical debate for another time, but we are talking about soccer now.

We need to win, but just in case, who do you cheer for? Well it's actually pretty simple. You see, Slovenia are on top of the Group with 4 points, the US and England are tied with 2 and Algeria sits at the bottom, but they're 1 point is a sniper sitting on a hill, 500 yards away, just waiting for his moment. If the US were to draw (the fancy term for tie), that sniper would be sent back to home base. And the US would be on 3 points, and as long as Slovenia win would go through. So you see we should cheer for Slovenia in the case of a tie.

Now it's possible that Slovenia doesn't come through in our time of need. Not to worry, we still have another out. We don't need to an "Ace on the river card" to win this hand. In fact all we need is a low pot that gets split. You see, the tiebreaker in the World Cup is goal differential. But with 3 ties your goal differential is 0. So they look at goals scored. Right now the US holds a 3-1 advantage over England. In the case of two draws, all the US has to do is score less than 2 goals less than England. In other words unless England draws 4-4, the US are in pretty good shape but we need to win.

We need to win because we could win the group. Yes, it's possible. You see, depending on how many goals England score, we could win the Group. And depending on how many goals England score, we might not advance.

Both games start at the same time, so on Wednesday when you have your picture in picture, or you go somewhere with more than one TV (recommended) here is the breakdown of what you should do in a few situations.

-England go up 1-0 in the 7th minute, we are still tied at 0: Don't freak out, the US have plenty of time. In fact if we win 1-0 we still would win the group.

-US go down 1-0 in the 7th minute, other game still tied at 0: Don't freak out, the US have plenty of time. In fact if we win 2-1 we still win the group.

-US go up 1-0 in the 7th minute and the other game is still tied at 0: Don't freak out, the US have plenty of time. But this would be a perfect way to end the games.

-Slovenia go up 1-0 in the 37th minute, we are still tied at 0: Grab your friends and do the little circle dance thing that they do. Since Slovenia is a small country, Tony Meola Sidekick Soccer just came out on SNES and I'm pretty sure thats where they got the goal celebration from. (I know I'm the only person who gets that joke, but then again, I'm the only person who reads this.)

-Both games are tied at 0-0 in the 37th minute: Get another beer and go to the bathroom you probably won't miss anything.

-England go up 1-0 in the 73rd minute, we are still tied 0-0: Start cheering for Slovenia and of course keep cheering for the US, if either one scores life goes on.

-England go up 3-2 in the 73rd minute, we are still tied 0-0: Now we are in trouble, at this point Slovenia really can't help us, we need to score. ***(If we were to win 1-0 it would be extremely fun, to break the tie they go to Goal Differential)

-Algeria go up 1-0 in the 73rd minute: Freak out!

-US go up 1-0 in the 88th minute, the other game is tied 0-0: Freak Out! And start tossing high-fives like beanbags in a cornhole tournament (carefully, but have fun)

-US go up 1-0 in the 88th minute, the other game is tied 1-1: We go through, but when the dust settles we'd be in the same situation as the *** scenario (Maybe you should go read it)

-Slovenia go up 1-0 in the 89th minute, US is up 1-0: Be a little bit upset, we just lost the top spot in the group. Then cheer for whoever you want to play in the knockout stage to win a few hours later.

I think you can figure out what other antics you should do depending on scores. If not just ask and I'll quip back at you.

***(In this scenario, if we were to win 1-0 it would be extremely fun. Both teams would have 5 points and advance, but to break the tie they go to Goal Differential. England would be sitting at +1, with the US at +1. Next would be Goals Scored. England would have 4, the US would have 4. The next tiebreaker is Head to Head. Pretty sure that does no good, as the teams tied 1-1. That puts us to FIFA's All-Time Greatest tiebreaker Drawing of Lots, woo-hoo!)

Week 1 by the Numbers

2010-06-16T11:18:00.000-04:00

We haven't played an entire week, but we have seen 16 matches. All 32 teams have seen the pitch.

We don't know much, but we can begin to anticipate what might happen. We'll take you inside the numbers of the First 16 Matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

9 games went to halftime scoreless, only 2 of them finished that way.

Gianluigi Buffon, Julio Cesar and Iker Casillas all gave up goals, but 13 other goalkeepers posted clean sheets. Italy's back-up didn't give up a goal once he came on. None of them won Man of the Match. 2 Goalkeepers did win Man of the Match, one of them lost 1-0 the other tied 1-1.

Of the Top 6 favorites (based on odds) only 2 teams won, Argentina and Germany

COMNEBOL went undefeated, winning 3 games and drawing twice. That 2.1 pts per team tops UEFA's 4-5-4 record 1.3 pts per team. Other conference's with draws second (as it should be) AFC 2-0-2 (6 pts) OCEANIA 0-1-0 (1 pt) CAF 1-2-3 (5 pts) CONCACAF 0-2-1 (2 pts). I'll take this time to remind you NO UEFA team has ever won a World Cup off European soil.

Cards outnumbered Goals by more than 2:1. On two occasions substitutes earned second yellows. 51 total cards, 3 second yellows and 1 straight EXTREMELY QUESTIONABLE red.

If you want to bring Siphiwe Tshabalaba, the first player to score in the World Cup, to your FIFA 10 Manager Mode team, be ready to fork over 4.9 million dollars on the transfer fee. Gelson Fernandes, the guy who scored against Spain, will cost you 5 million.

Had you for some reason picked those two players on your ESPNSoccernet.com fantasy team, as midfielders, you would have paid 10 million. Cristiano Ronaldo would have cost you 2.5 million more for 15 less points.

Some more FIFA 10, Mexico went with Oscar Perez over Guillermo Ochoa, they are separated by 13 years and 9 rating points. As for the USA, according to FIFA Ratings there are 15 HEALTHY forwards (not including Donovan who is listed as a forward) that are better than Robbie Findlay, listed as a 64 OVERALL (McBride, Adu, Ching, Cooper, Twellman, EJ, Casey, Razov, Rolfe, Noonan, Jacqua, Wolff, Buddle, Cunningham, Mathis) I will buy the argument that 3 of those guys are midfielders. Bob Bradley obviously does not play video games with his son, who is listed as a 76.

25 goals have been scored, by 24 different players, representing 12 different leagues. But nobody has scored twice. One of the scorers is currently a Free Agent. The EPL leads with 5, followed by German Bundesliga (4) French Ligue 1 (3) Turkish Super Lig and Italian Serie A (2). The other leagues all have 1... South African Premier Soccer League, Spanish Primera, J-League, Mexican Primera, Russian Premier League, North Korean 1st Division, Danish Superliga.

NO PLAYER THAT LED HIS RESPECTIVE LEAGUE IN SCORING HAS SCORED YET, meanwhile only 2 club teammates have scored: Klose and Mueller.

87.5% of the teams in the World Cup did not score multiple goals. 5 teams answered an opponents goal with a goal of their own, 4 of them tied 1-1. North Korea are the only team to score and not take a point. Meanwhile 4 teams didn't score and took points.

After Week 2, we will come back and update the old, and bring in some new. Until then enjoy John Harkes referring back to some anecdote of a game that happened a week ago each time he is asked about something going on in the game he is currently broadcasting.

Matchday 2 Review

2010-06-12T17:31:00.000-04:00

South Korea 2 Greece 0

I will be honest I wasn't awake, snooze button FAIL. And also a DVR FAIL. I've seen the goals and I've heard about the game. Don't feel I need to say anything. I picked this game as a South Korea win and then changed my mind at the last minute. Greece play boring football and they finally payed for it. Look for more of that when they square off against Argentina and Nigeria.

Argentina 1 Nigeria 0

Once again, I was unable to watch the whole game, though I did get it on DVR. After seeing the first goal and the highlights I don't know if I need to watch all 90 minutes to catch the gist. Jury is out on whether Heinze steals away the goal of the tournament Tshabalala. Do the times make the goal or the goal make the times? Tshabalala's is the first ever World Cup goal on Africa soil, scored by the host nation, given NO CHANCE and just a ridiculous strike. Heinze's is a great header but not sure if it was nearly as meaningful. The African keepers, who have always seemed the wink link in most squads, have put on some tremendous shows in their first two games.

USA 1 England 1

The Good:

USA: Could have easily fallen apart after going down early on a defensive lapse (albeit in the midfield not the back four), yet didn't. In fact from the goal until half-time the US were the better team. Do I really need to say Tim Howard is the most vital player on this team. This team played with heart today, which is one of the traits of American football. You can't turn that on and off.

England: Despite not taking their chances, the Three Lions owned the second half. Passed the ball around the pitch like a Sunday afternoon stroll through the park. Slovenia and Algeria do not have Tim Howard in goal to stop every opportunity. In case people are worried about Robert Green, I say he made up for the blunder on the save on Altidore late in the second.

The Bad:

USA: For a player deemd "speedy" Robbie Findlay gave up on a lot of balls. poorly on the goal, and then cleaned it up. Apparently playing the game against Australia on a 45 yard wide pitched really hurt our attack. 7 guys standing in the middle of the field at one time is never going to score goals. Is it just me or does the team look completely different with Donovan wide left rather than wide right?

England: A lot of useless cards that could haunt them, assuming they go through. Not a very impressive performance from a team with that much talent. The goalie situation has not been good since David Seaman and now they are in a lot of trouble. If you bench Green, his international career is done as long as Capello is the coach.

The Ugly:

Is there any doubt? I feel bad even retyping it. You've got to feel bad for the kid. I hope he gets a second chance and redeems himself in a big way. Maybe leading England to a win in shots from the spot

I stated that the Golden Boot would be won by an EPL player. Matchday 1 saw no goals from Pienaar, Anelka, Forlan or Dos Santos. Today we get goals from Manchester United, Liverpool and Fulham.

As league totals stand for the Golden Boot

English Premier League ... 3 ( Park Ji-Sung, Steven Gerrard, Clint Dempsey)

South African Premier League ... 1 (Siphiwe Tshabalala)

Spanish Primera ... 1 (Rafa Marquez)

Ligue 1 ... 1 (Gabriel Heinze)

Saudi Professional League ... 1 (Lee Chun-Soo)

I see a Bundesliga charge tomorrow, with all but one player being home-based on the Germany squad and Slovenia's top scorer being a Bundesliga man as well.

World Cup Preview

2010-06-11T18:12:00.000-04:00

As I said earlier the REAL World Cup starts tomorrow. As I said earlier nobody wants to find themselves down 3 points when 28 other Nations have yet to take the pitch. Pretty much what I said earlier came true, four teams all on level terms after the first matchday. So here comes the preview since we actually start tomorrow.

Group A

Mexico - 5 points

South Africa - 5 points

France - 2 points

Uruguay - 2 points

I've had Mexico and South Africa through since Day 1. Today's matches did not and will not change anything. Except for points. I originally had Bafana Bafana tied at 4 with Les Bleus but the passion they played with today changed my mind. If Marquez is back and El Tri will start to finish, they will take 3 against France. Uruguay are a 1 man team, that will steal one more point likely from Mexico.

Group B

Argentina - 9 points

Nigeria - 6 points

South Korea - 1 points

Greece - 1 points

Argentina are my cup champs and it starts off with a perfect run in the group stage. Messi is that good. They struggled in qualifying but were drawn into a group that favors them. Greece play sit and wait football and if you sit and wait for Messi he will burn you. Nigeria will have the African crowd advantage and while they may not have a Drogba or an Eto'o the Super Eagles have the pieces to advance. If Korea and Greece do not play to a draw things could change significantly confidence wise.

Group C

USA - 7

England - 6

Slovenia - 2

Algeria - 1

Yes you are reading that right and if you are intuitive you can read into a little farther. But I'm going to keep it as subtle as possible. But do me a favor and count the points and do the math. Just don't say anything about tomorrow's result based on those points. I'm being as subtle as i possibly can here. Everyone has these two advancing, I've likely switched the order of it. I've toyed with the possibility of Slovenia grabbing 5 and The Three Lions only managing 4, but it just doesn't seem likely.

Group D

Germany - 9

Australia - 3

Serbia - 3

Ghana - 3

The Black Stars are not the same team without Michael Essien. German are not the same team without Ballack, but have players to replace him. The Socceroos on the other hand have their star healthy, in Tim Cahill, and a very good goalkeeper in Schwarzer. You don't always need a keeper that can win games for you, but you do need one who won't lose them. I'm a huge Branislav Ivanovic fan but I just don't see Serbia scoring goals. With three teams splitting, goal differential will make the difference and Australia have the right balance of offense and defense to move on.

Group E

Netherlands - 7

Cameroon - 5

Denmark - 3

Japan - 0

This could be the year Netherlands finally breaks through. The team they have are top notch, gone is Van Der Sar who some people consider a goalkeeper (there is not a typo there in case you weren't sure). The other three teams make me say "eh." There are not enough free kicks for Honda in the tournament to give Japan a chance. Cameroon have Eto'o, but his form and attitude are in the wrong place. Arguably the best striker in this group is Niklas Bendtner from Denmark. How it plays out will be decided in the first game. If Cameroon come to play against the Dutch give them their ticket to the Sweet 16 and call it a day.

Group F

Italy - 7

New Zealand - 4

Paraguay - 3

Slovakia - 3

Italy's decision to leave behind Rossi is going to be there downfall. But not in this group. None of the other three teams are good enough to beat Italy, but none are good enough to beat each other either. Skrtel might be intimidating but they don't have much else (props to Stanislav Sestak from VfL Bochum but there is a reason they went down to 2. Bundesliga) In another German themes pick Paraguay may still have Roque Santa Cruz but he no longer "Ich Roque"s. I have to go with New Zealand.

Group H

Brazil - 6 points

Ivory Coast - 6 points

Portugal - 4 points

North Korea - 1 point

Mark my word North Korea will keep a team out by stealing a point. I see the Big Three in this "Group of Death" (I've argued it since Day 1, but thats beside the point) splitting. Not sure who beats who though. I have North Korea screwing it up for Portugal. And here is why...

Scenario 1. Portugal and whatever color Vapors Cristiano is wearing will be coming off an important win against the Drogbas. They will be on 3 points each with Brazil. Looking forward to a game against Brazil for seeding they assume 3 against North Korea and get burned doing so.

Scenario 2. They are coming off a loss to the Elephants, and in order to boost goal differential assuming a 3 way tie at 6, they get beat on a counter attack. North Korea goes up 1, and ecstatic to take points from anyone in this group, then sits back with 8 guys.

When you have 3 high seeds and a nobody, you really don't want to play the nobody second.

Group H

Spain - 7

Honduras - 4

Switzerland - 2

Chile - 2

Spain are everyones team to beat, but not mine. I don't think all of their superstars are mentally tough. I can't say they aren't a good team they will win the group and probably advance to the semis but I do see a slip up along the way. Another group with no clear #2, I take Honduras because I love underdogs... see South Africa and New Zealand. But since no European team has ever won the World Cup on non European soil, my Anyone But UEFA theory might just come into play here. And of course to paraphrase the great soccer commentator, Charlize Theron, those teams will be able to talk to each other in the same language.

Check back tomorrow for the Knockout Round. Where nothing special happens to all those teams that you think I'm crazy for picking.

France vs Uruguay Review

2010-06-11T16:46:00.001-04:00

First things first... If I never see another pair of orange and silver Nike Vapors it will be to soon.

I don't think there is a more ironic sight than Henry asking for a handball.

France 0 Uruguay 0

The Good
France Gourcuff's chance on the free kick was really the only shining moment in an otherwise dull game. For fans and players, if they keep playing like that they won't have to worry about Domenech leaving on a high note.
Uruguay They took a point which is what they were going for while employing 5 in back, 3 defensive mids, Suarez and Forlan. Forlan is as advertised, he creates for himself and others just doesn't have much else.

The Bad
France Ribery never found his position, Anelka was not (as I said he might be numerous times) the only times they looked good were when Sagna got forward. Not an impressive performance. I'm not a huge Malouda fan but he needs to be on the pitch if they want to advance
Uruguay Forlan and Suarez looked incapable of playing a ball to each other for much of the game. They've scored so many goals but have to play together. There just isn't enough on the squad for them to not be in sync. Lodeiro walking off the pitch in tears, have to feel for the kid but he deserved the second card.

The Ugly
Way to many cards from Chef Morimoto in the center.
Sagna's hair. It gives him the starting RB position on this years All-Bad Hair team.
When Abreu came on in the second half for Uruguay, the announcer described him as a possible spark and a "long-haired player.

South Africa vs Mexico Review

2010-06-11T13:28:00.000-04:00

I'm due for a preview. and I'll put it out before the REAL World Cup starts, tomorrow. I was as excited as anyone else for today's first game and still excited for the next one in about an hour. However, the first day rarely brings anything to special. Teams don't want to be battling back from down 3 points with a goal differential in the minuses. When 28 other teams haven't taken to the pitch. Look at France in 2002, when they were shocked by Senegal in the opener. While South Africa gave us something special to cheer about for a while, it ended as it should be in a draw. Check back for my preview (nothing changes even after today's results, I put South Africa and Mexico through in every pick'em I've played).

South Africa 1 Mexico (even though they were wearing black) 1

The Good
South Africa: Though they were up 1-0 and probably could have earned 3 points, Bafana Bafana has to be happy with one. Nobody has given them any chance. The young 22 year old Khune in goal, made some great saves and his distribution from goal embodied my favorite line "last line of defense first line of offense." New favorite non-American keeper (right behind tim Howard and Ryan Miller).
Mexico: The offense created numerous chances, just weren't finishing. Good teams figure out how to finish, but creating chances is tough. Marquez is back on form. Mexico also has the world's best 12th man, in that for 11 minutes they can bring in Blanco but in the 12th he's already tired.

The Bad
South Africa: Their best player did not show up. They may have been better off with Matt Damon's "Pienaar" rather than Everton's. Also not good when the entire defensive line steps except for the one who should be calling out the step.
Mexico: The defense was extremely susceptible to anyone with speed and/or two feet. You have to assume that Uruguay and France will play a speedy striker in their matches. Going forward with Perez may be a mistake. He was certainly adventurous off is line on more than one occasion, but his save making ability is not as good as that of Ochoa IMO.

The Ugly
Besides Cuahtemoc Blanco's physique? I think it was Juarez, in a tournament where yellow cards add up, halting a quick restart 20 minutes in when your team has dominated in every aspect of the game is just a poor decision.

Proud Fan of the Most Hated Team in the Majors!

2010-04-29T10:37:00.000-04:00

The Wall-Street Journal has declared the Cleveland Indians the MLB’s most hated team. Using an Internet algorithm built by the Nielsen Company that analyzes how people feel about certain things, the Indians… not the Yankees… not the Red Sox… the Indians… were determined to be the most hated team.

Thanks to the Nielsen Co. we’ve finally won something. This study was done on the internet, and posted on the internet, it must be true. When has Nielsen ever got something wrong? We are talking about the same company that got Sports Night and Arrested Development cancelled. The same company that gave us a few more seasons worth of well-developed ancillary characters that were vital to the Heroes storyline.

“The algorithm worked by scouring the web for mentions of any baseball team, and then looked for words that revealed emotion or opinion, such as “hate”, “love”, “sucks”, and so forth.” I apologize, I’m part at fault for this ranking because I’m always Google Searching things like “Famous Indian People + Gandhi Sucks” and “Indian Casinos are poopy.” I’m not sure if Facebook fan pages count because I just joined “When the Yankees beat the British in the Revolutionary War, I was soooo happy,” and “I <3 Clean White Socks"

This algorithm has FAIL written all over, so here are the Top 10 Things I Think About This Study.
1. Also said NBA’s most hated team – Celtics, NFL’s most hated team –Vikings, NHL’s most hated team – Canadiens … +1 point for Racism on the internet!
2. It’s easy to hate the Indians, every time your team plays them you have a chance to win and winning isn’t everything you know.
3. If it weren’t for Johnny Depp and Disney, the Pirates probably would have past us. Arrr, I hate pirates.
4. Did Joakim Noah get to vote twice?
5. We scored a .9, they must have been taking into account runs per game.
6. Is Eric Wedge really that bitter?
7. John Rocker was only here for a year, so all you queers with AIDS and kids with purple hair on the Subway need to chillax.
8. DOES ALL CAPS COUNT DOUBLE??? WHAT ABOUT NUMEROUS EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!
9. What? Dorn bought the team and brought in Jack Parkman?
10. Imagine the screams of the Yankees fans.. “Nobody hates the Indians. PEOPLE HATE US WAY MORE!!”

Believe the Hype or is it Too Untrue?

2010-04-27T16:57:00.000-04:00

In Judaism the Talmud teaches of the Tzadikim Nistarim or the Lamed Vav Tzadikim. It is said that at all times there are 36 special people in the world, and that were it not for them, all of them, if even one of them was missing, the world would come to an end. (A quick lesson in Gematria; Lamed-Vav. Lamed = 30 and Vav = 6, hence Lamed Vav Tzadikim). It is said that these 36 people's role in life is to justify the purpose of mankind in the eyes of G-d. Tradition states that their identities may not be known to themselves or to others, and that if one of them were to realize this role, they would die and be replaced by another.

It's an extremely interesting concept, whether you are the religious type or not. But when I was re-visiting a sermon our Rabbi gave a few Yom Kippur or ago, it got me thinking. The idea of the Lamed Vavniks, as they are called in Yiddush, is a lesson that can be taught through sports as well.

I believe that at any given time there are 36 Superstars in ALL OF SPORTS. Not just in the US but worldwide. This group of 36 athletes are on earth to justify the purpose of sports in the eyes of the public. If one of them were to realize this role, they would die and be replaced by another... Vince Carter or Allen Iverson anyone?

They return to their anonymity as soon as their task is accomplished, 'concealing' themselves once again in a community wherein they are relatively unknown... pretty much any Olympian?

The lamed-vavniks do not themselves know that they are ones of the 36. In fact, tradition has it that should a person claim to be one of the 36, that is proof positive that he is certainly not one... Jose Mourinho!

These 36 have such "avanah" (humility) that it precludes against their self-proclamations of being among the special.They are all to humble to belive they are one of the 36... Phil Mickelson?

Very few Superstars are truly humble. However, in sports an athlete who day in and day out shows us that they are a superstar rather than saying it, THAT in itself is humbling. The mysticism of the Lamed Vavniks disappears if people know who they are, however there is nothing against conjecture. When Roger Federer makes a shot and you just stop and wonder how on earth it was possible. You can believe he is one of the 36.

As I debated who are the 36, fifteen were obvious. These players sell tickets and put people in the seats, when they are coming to your city it becomes an event you must see. These 14 make us wonder if what we just saw really happened.

1. LeBron James

2. Kobe Bryant

3. Shaun White

4. Lionel Messi

5. Roger Federer

6. Cristiano Ronaldo

7. Michael Phelps

8. Usain Bolt

9. Rafael Nadal

10. Kevin Durant

11. Sydney Crosby

12. Roy Halladay

13. Lance Armstrong

14. Alexander Ovechkin

15. Josh Cribbs

So who are the other 21? I believe the 36 Superstars can change at any given moment. During the NCAA Basketball Tournament, one buzzer-beater makes a player a superstar, but a weekend later that player can fade right back into oblivion. Could it be that player started to believe he was one of the 36? Something that is just not allowed.

Here is the shortlist for some that may or may not be part of this special group... Wayne Rooney, Kaka, David Beckham (undeservedly) Dwayne Wade, Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Rose, Steve Nash, Albert Pujols, Stephen Strasburg (moves up as soon as he makes an MLB Start), Jason Heyward (already on his way to being 16), Ryan Braun, A-Rod, Mariano Rivera, Johan Santana, Peyton Manning, Andy Roddick, Venus and Serena Williams, Tiger Woods (clearly on the list until about 6 months ago), Phil Mickelson, Ryan Miller (if only because of his US Olympic performance) Candace Parker, The UConn Women's Basketball team, The Penn State Women's Volleyball team, Apollo Anton Ohno, a NASCAR guy, John Wall, Evan Turner, Brad Stevens (Yeah, coaches can be there).

But then again maybe this list is truly reserved for people like Former Central Washington first baseman Mallory Holtman, softball player carried around bases. For Rick and Dick Hoyt, who form Team Hoyt (must see video). For Maurice Cheeks helping a young girl sing the National Anthem. For Jason McElwain, the autistic high-school basketball player, or even for his coach Jim Johnson who gave him the chance to play.

The Lamed Vavniks are not necessarily the best. But they are those who come through for us in a time of need. Sports is about escape, when we are in need of healing.

So later this week when you are watching the NBA Playoffs, don't forget, the Lamed Vavniks emerge from their self-imposed concealment and, by the mystic powers, which they possess, they succeed in averting the threatened disasters of a people persecuted by the enemies that surround them... LeBron James anyone?

Your Starting QB #7 Ben Roethlisberger

2010-04-21T13:36:00.000-04:00

The first three excuses I can think of from Browns fans on why not to bring in Roethlisberger are as follows.

1. He's a sworn enemy on and off the field.

2. He has off the field issues.

3. Because of 2, he is suspended for the first 6 games.

Guess What. I don't care. Before I even get started, let me dispell these excuses (because you know what they say about excuses).

1a. If 20 years ago Jon Elway said "I feel sorry for the Browns franchise, if it weren't for me they may have won a Super Bowl by now." Would you say "sorry we really like Brian Sipe?" If after the shot Jordan said "I got lucky on the shot, I have a better chance of becoming a superstar playing alongside Price and Daugherty than Pippen. I'm sure you'd say "no no please stay away, we like losing to you all the time. Imagine Roethlisberger being flipped with Phillip Rivers in 2004. We wouldn't even be making this excuse. The simple fact that he once wore Black and Yellow is not means for not having him on your team.

2. Roethlisberger's motorcycle accident in 2006 was not an off-field issue, people get in accidents. He got hit, albeit he should have had a helmet on, but he wasn't doing wheelies in a parking lot. Roethlisberger's off field issue have come since 2007. Mike Tomlin was hired to replace Bill Cowher in Pittsburgh in 2007. Maybe this is a coincidence, but I think not. Anyone who thinks Cowher and Tomlin run the same type of NFL Team doesn't know football. Different coaching styles, different demeanors. To me there is a reason Big Ben's issue off the field have been in the post-Cowher area. I'm not calling Tomlin soft, but personally I'd rather have Tomlin tell me off than Cowher. Mangini is a character guy, he may not be as mean as Cowher but he's more like Cowher than Tomlin. Not to mention Holmgren wouldn't allow it either.

3. The Browns are not going to contend this year. So does the fact that Roethlisberger will have to sit the first 6 games (maybe only 4 depending on how well he cooperates) really matter. Of course not.

Excuses dispelled, now onto the good stuff.

The draft is about getting better right? Bradford, Clausen, Tebow, LeFevour, Dan Whalen are not names of guys who have won Super Bowls, not names of guys who have gone to pro-bowls. Anytime you can get a proven NFL QB your team is going to get better. Look at Washington, look at Minnesota. 1st Round QBs make ridiculous amounts of money. Roethlisberger will make less money than Bradford, he will probably make less money than Clausen (if Clausen goes Top 10). His contract is actually attractive, despite the fact we just paid tons of money for Delhomme.

As I write, ESPN sources report that the Steelers would be willing to trade him for a Top 10 pick. Meanwhile the Pittsburgh Beat Writer is saying they aren't (of course he is, journalistic nightmare for him right now).

I do not want the Browns taking a QB in the draft, but if they trade for Roethlisberger they aren't really taking him in the draft. Say they flip the 7th pick and one of their 3rd for Roethlisberger and 18 (the Steelers first pick). Obviously Eric Berry is gone. But Earl Thomas and Taylor Mays are both likely still there. There is no guarantee that Berry would even be there at 7. Let's weigh this... Proven Top 10 NFL Starting QB and the second or third best free safety in the draft or the best safety in the draft. Hmm? A couple years ago Taylor Mays was being compared to Troy Polamalu he was a Top 10 pick before returning to school. Some draftniks are saying Thomas might be better than Berry. So if those three guys all end up having similar careers. How can you argue against getting a 28 year old 2x Super Bowl Winning Quarterback in his prime versus grabbing Tony Pike in the 3rd round?

You get Roethlisberger with a trade, Delhomme starts until he comes back. Then you have two NFL QBs in stead of two guys who might one day be NFL QBs.

Holmgren and Mangini can turn him around, he will come out of his suspension a better man, and with a renewed spirit. If you don't want him on your team because he played a couple hours East of here, you really don't want the Browns to get better.

Last time the Browns had a shot at Roethlisberger they took Kellen Winslow. Huge character guy in that pick right? In 2010 they have a chance to fix it. Do it!

The Obvious Upset

2010-03-17T11:57:00.000-04:00

Wait a second... is that I'm a Believer on the radio...Is it the Monkees version... what about Smash Mouth...What do you mean who is Smash Mouth... where are we 1966?

Yeah, I know the former Texas Western is a 26-6 team. So what if the Miners went 15-1 in the Jon Calipari Commemorative Conference. Who wouldn't be impressed by their 1-3 record against AP Top 25. The 3-4 against other teams in the tournament (including 1-2 against C-USA Tourney Champs Houston) is the stuff of legend.

That Out of Conference schedule was ridiculous. I mean who would have thought to play New Mexico St. in a home and home series. I can't blame them for scheduling Arkansas Pine-Bluff, heck they are one of only 17 teams that will go 1-1 in this year's tournament. Not even the Big XII coaches knew that Oklahoma was going to be terrible this year, apparently Blake Griffin was that good. And who can fault them for playing Norfolk State and North Carolina A&T a couple of teams with huge potential to finish in the Top 10 of a historically great mid-major like the MEAC. Ever since that 60 point win against the worst league-affiliated D1 program in the country this year, Alcorn St., these guys have been a lock to get to the Sweet Sixteen even if they lost in the finals of the conference tourney.

Their first round competition is some overrated mid-major from a joke conference that only has a .472 winning percentage in the NCAA tournament.

Yeah, I know the former North Western Christian University is a 28-4 team. So what, the Bulldogs went 18-0 in the Todd Lickliter Memorial League. Nobody is impressed with their 1-3 against the AP Top 25. The 3-3 against other teams in the tourney (including 1-2 against teams seeded 7 or better) is far from legendary.

That Out of Conference schedule was a cakewalk. I mean who schedules an early season Midwest tour against Northwestern and Evansville and follows it up with Minnesota. You have to blame them for not playing any potential play-in game winners, it just shows a lack of RPI knowledge. Not even the Pac-10 coaches knew that UCLA was going to be terrible, it's not like Jrue Holliday and Darren Collison were that good. You have to fault the Athletic Office and Coach for putting teams that barely had Top 10 potential in historically terrible mid-majors like the Missouri Valley and the MAC. Ever since that one-point loss to Clemson, I crossed this team off the list as an at-large, they are lucky then won the conference tourney.

Luckily for the Miners, we didn't go back 11 years earlier, these games aren't going to be played at Historic Hinkle Fieldhouse, because the hoops may be 10 feet tall there, but apparently they are taller in San Jose.

33rd World Cup Team

2009-12-03T13:44:00.000-05:00

I love Ireland, I think they got shafted but their request for a 33rd team was so ridiculous it got me thinking.

How about FIFA allow a 33rd team of players who will miss the World cup in 2010. Guys that if it was up to FIFA would be in over almost anyone on Algeria, North Korea, New Zealand, Slovakia, Chile and South Africa

So here it is the World Cup's 33rd Team.
The 25 Man Roster of Players You won't see in 2010.

RULES:
1. There may be no more than 1 player from any country represented per position. Ex. Shay Given and Robbie Keane can be on the team, but Arshavin and Pavlyuchenko can't (unless we get creative and make Arshavin a winger)
2. There must be at least one player from each of the six associations (UEFA, CONCACAF, COMNEBOL, AFC, OFC, AFRICA)
3. The team must have a fair breakdown of players on it's 22 man roster. Ex. No team would carry 2 GKS, 5 Defenders, 5, Mids, and 13 Strikers

Goalkeepers 3--
Petr Cech (Czech Republic, Chelsea) - Cech isn't as good as he once was, but there is no doubt he is the best goalkeeper not going to South Africa. In 2008, he was voted the #4 keeper in the World behind Casillas, Buffon and van der Sar.
Shay Given (Ireland, Man City) - The argument that Given should be there anyway and the fact that we already have young inexperienced goalkeeper in Navas is why I put him on the squad over Igor Akinfeev (Russia, CSKA Moscow)
Keylor Navas (Costa Rica, Saprissa) - Navas is only 22 and already considered the third best keeper in CONCACAF. I know what your thinking, it's CONCACAF who cares? Considering he's behind Tim Howard and Guillermo Ochoa, that's not a bad spot to be. Akinfeev is better, but UEFA has enough on this team.

Defenders 8 --
Yuri Zhirkov (Russia, Chelsea) - Zhirkov is a left-back and the only defender to be named to the EURO 2008- All Tournament team that won't be playing in South Africa.
Sami Hyppia (Finland, Bayer Leverkusen) - The former Liverpool centre-back, will probably never see a World Cup. He plays for Finland and he's 36. But with 103 caps, and over 500 club matches he a good veteran fit with the next guy.
Jonny Evans (Northern Ireland, Manchester United) - Currently on loan to Sunderland, Evans is a 6'2, center back and only two months older than me. He might be a World cup away from really contributing to this team, but I'm pretty sure Northern Ireland isn't seeing the WC in 2014 either.
Gareth Bale (Wales, Tottenham Hotspur) - You can never have enough good left-backs. Bale can even move up to a wing position. Him and Zhirkov would make it tough for a coach to choose who starts
John O'Shea (Ireland, Manchester United) - O'Shea is one of three Irishmen on the team, his abillity to move up into a defensive mid role is important, but he's likely start at CB along with Hyppia.
Christian Fuchs (Austria, VfL Bochum) - Fuchs is extremely versatile he can play in back, he can play central mid, and he can play winger. It certainly doesn't hurt him that he plays for Bochum either.
Ivan Cordoba (Columbia, Internazionale) - This guy has played 280 games for Inter Milan, pretty hard to leave him off the team. Yeah he's 33, but as of this moment the team doesn't have a right-back. At 5'8, Cordoba isn't a typical back, but his leaping ability is fairly well noted.
Darjo Srna (Croatia, Shakhtar Donetsk) - Srna is the captain of both his national team and his club team. However he takes much different roles. At Skakhtar he's the starting right-back. With Croatia he's a starting mifielder.

Midfielder 7 --
Yossi Benayoun (Israel, Liverpool) - Benayoun still might have a shot at playing in a World Cup, as Israel just keeps getting closer and closer to a big tourney. It seems like he's been around for a long time, but he's only 29. The most dynamic player in Israel, he scores pretty much everywhere he goes.
Kim Kallstrom (Sweden, Lyon) - It's rumored that he once knocked out teammate Adreas Isakkson on a free kick in training. Kallstrom is a natural born playmaker and can be put in any midfield role. Use him on the left-wing here and watch him create chances for Ibrahimovic and Berbatov.
Tomas Rosicky (Czech Republic, Arsenal) - The problem with Rosicky is that he plays the same position as Benayoun, is the same age and has really battled injury woes. The guy deserves the spot on this team, but might not be a starter.
Christian Noboa (Ecuador, Rubin Kazan) - Another attacking mid, but Noboa can play the wings as well. Easily the best midfielder in Ecuador, at 24 he's a name to watch.
Andrei Arshavin (Russia, Arsenal) - Is it cheating to call him a midfielder only so that Pavlyuchenko can get on the team? No, because Pavlyuchenko doesn't make the team. Arshavin plays mid on my team, because in a 4-5-1 my wing-mid should be a striker.
Luka Modric (Croatia, Tottenham Hotspur) - Since Srna plays defense for his club, it gives us a chance to put Modric into the team.
Hamit Altintop - (Turkey, Bayern Munich) - Altintop can fall into a defensive mid role, and that's the only reason I include him. I think there are better players out there.

Striker 7 --
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden, Barcelona) - Arguments that Ibra is the most in form player in the world right now might be true when it comes to club.
Osea Vakatalesau (Fiji, Ba FC) - The required Oceania choice might not be that bad. It's hard to know much about a player like him. All I know is that he played for the best club in Fiji and is on loan to a team in New Zealand. I can also tell you he has scored 36 goals in 23 international appearance. Granted the competition is not top class, but it's still and impressive run.
Dimitar Berbatov (Bulgaria, Manchester United) - honestly I don't care for him all that much, but he certainly belongs here.
Kenwyne Jones (T&T, Sunderland) - Trying to get some CONCACAF love here. Just goes to show that the teams that made the Cup are the teams that probably should have. (The same goes for Asia) With Costly, Palacios and Suazo at Honduras, and everyone else from USA or Mexico. It's just not a good conference.
Robbie Keane (Ireland, Tottenham Hotspur) - How can you leave the greatest scorer in Ireland history, and arguably the best in Tottenham history off this team? It can't be done.
Yasser Al-Qahtani (Saudi Arabia, Al Hilal) - Asia's only representative, Al-Qahtani is probably good enough to play for Championship English club. But the money in Saudi Arabia is better, he was a Saudi Premier League record transfer of 8.1 USD in 2005
Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo, Manchester City) - I almost forgot Adebayor, and now I'm worried I forgot about a lot of African players. There are some very good African players, that we have no idea who they play for, we just no they are African, out there, and that's why I hate not being in the same Pot as them.

Honorable Mention
Igor Akinfeev (Russia, CSKA Moscow) - Akinfeev is going to be really really good, he's easily the best Goalkeeper in the World under 23 [and that's coming from a guy who really really like Joe Hart from Birmingham City]
John Arne Riise (Norway, Roma) - Riise is easily my favorite defender to score an own goal that sent a team through in Champions League. Riise is a strong defender and while that own goal may have cost him his job at Anfield, he fits in well at Roma.
Roman Pavlyuchenko (Russia, Tottenham Hotspur) - Very tough to leave him off the list, but I can't feel that bad for the Russians, unlike Ireland, they shot themselves in the foot during the playoff.
Mido (Egypt, Middlesbrough) - On loan to El Zamalek where he started his career. Mido was once a top player but has since fallen off a bit.
Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine) - just not what he used to be anymore, but still good enough to score goals in the World Cup.
Eduardo (Croatia, Arsenal) - he's good but if he picked the right team he wouldn't need to be on this list.
Damien Duff (Ireland, Fulham) - I just really like him so I'd bring him as a reserve.
Darren Fletcher (Scotland, Manchester United) - I thought fletcher was much older than 25, maybe I need to rethink that.
Seydou Keita (Mali, Barcelona) - midfielder finding his role well with Barcelona, gets the nod over Mahamadou Diarra (Real Madrid) and Mohamad Sossoko (Juventus) both Malian midfield mates.
Antonio Valencia (Ecuador, Manchester United) - still young but not quite ready to be in a group of players like those above
Marc Janko (Austria, FC Red Bull Salzburg) - same as Valencia, except he's a 6'6 striker.
Edin Dzeko (Bosnia, VfL Wolfsburg) - the 23 year old Christiano look alike is going to be a name that you get familiar with in a couple years
Mohamed Zidan (Egypt, Borussia Dortmund) - the simple fact he plays for BvB puts him behind Berbatov.

Professional Cricket League

2009-07-16T15:36:00.000-04:00

As you can see by the invisible second and third editions of the EPL kits preview/review, I'ven't been writing much. But I finally found something to write about... cricket.

The USA Cricket Association (USACA, which is a great name in and of itself) announced earlier today that "it hopes 'top-class international cricket' will finally take root in America by launching the first professional competition, the USA Premier League." It's hard to believe that the crowd noise decibels at any event could ever match the name of the event. Seriously how many cricket players can you name? I can name 3, Jack Hobbs, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar and a 4th guy and that's only because they were the 4 multiple choice answers for the 10,000,000 rupee question.

Investors have come up with numerous half-baked and/or poorly marketed sports ideas. For example pretty much every failed women's league of the past 10 years, the XFL comes to mind as half-baked, World TeamTennis the third time (only because I don't know if it was successful the first time) being another one. Oh you didn't know World TeamTennis came back?

The idea of a professional cricket league in the states is nearly as ridiculous as the idea that a professional curling league would be successful and here's why.

Look at nearly popular sports in the US... football, basketball, baseball and even the less popular ones like soccer and lacrosse. They can all be somehow adapted to a pick-up style game, in which full teams are not necessary and full field size is not necessary. Even hockey can be played with roller blades, a kick ball and a broom. Cricket doesn't work like that. It's played on a gigantic pitch... sorry boundary (this the proper term), and if you have never seen a game, basically it's baseball that is played in every direction. Where is a kid going to find 21 friends and a big enough place to play a game that none of the other 21 kids have ever seen in their lives?

New sports have to have a way to catch on with a young active generation (I say this knowing that the generation is not that active, but the ones who do go outside and play are the ones that are targeted by new sports). It's the reason more kids don't take up golf or tennis, they see it as standing around. Another reason it won't catch on with youth is... the awkward pitching motion. It's bad enough that Little Leaguers blow out their arms trying to throw curveballs. What's going to happen when they start trying this.

GOOD LUCK!

The scoring is confusing. Think running bases, with fielders everywhere. The one good thing Cricket might do is teach kids how to hit the cut-off man. Here's an example of a scorecard.

Australia - 1st Innings
M. Taylor      c. Richardson  b. Snell    12
M. Slater      LBW. Donald                57
D. Boon        b. de Villiers             68
M. Waugh       not out                   184
A. Border      c. Rhodes  b. Donald        0
S. Waugh       c. Snell  b. de Villiers   34
I. Healy       c. Snell  b. de Villiers    6
S. Warne       run out                    35
M. Hughes      st. Richardson  b. Cronje  10
C. McDermott   b. de Villiers             41
G. McGrath     LBW. de Villiers            9
Extras                             16
Total   141 overs          10 for 472

I imagine that would make a bit of sense if I had a clue what some of the intricate rules meant. But I don't which leads to the next problem...
Rules. There are so many rules in baseball that the average fan doesn't know, imagine taking all those average fans and multiplying the rules by two. You might have cricket.

As you know I am a huge soccer fan and sadly I know that soccer will always be behind football, baseball and basketball... even if the US does finally win a World Cup. But soccer certainly has it's niche. People who love soccer watch soccer. Do I think the MLS is a great league, absolutely not. Do I watch it? Yes, because I love to watch the game. Do I ever think I will watch a cricket match or test or whatever it's called? NO, absolutely not.

USACA seems to think they have a marketable sport that people will latch onto, saying "it wants to unlock the sport's potential in a 'massive market' and use the revenues from the new league to help spread cricket across the U.S. and form a competitive international team." My question to them, cricket has been played since the 16th century, and international matches have been played since 1844, very similar to when Baseball first started. The Ashes which is likely the sports biggest event after the World Cup began in 1882. If it hasn't even become a niche sport in 150 years, what makes them think a professional league is going to suddenly gain attention.

Before USACA goes through with this, they should really check their history. The XFL could not compete with the NFL, the ABA could not compete with the NBA and these are sports that are the same already American known games. Anyone would thinks that cricket could be successful in the States has apparently never watched a baseball game.

New EPL Kits Part 1

2009-06-26T12:51:00.000-04:00

I'm due for another blog entry and it just so happens to be a jersey segment. I haven't checked Uniwatchblog, in order to see if they've already done it, so if they have well too bad.

Thankfully Newcastle have dropped out of the Premiership and we won't have to see this hideous away kit. I always though yellow and white stripes would look kind of cool, but yellow and creme never crossed my mind.

So we will go in alphabetical order...

If you are familiar with the Arsenal crest you know that it contains two shades of red, gold, white and navy. So they went with this as their away kit. I've never been much for the Gunners away kits 08/09 and 07/08. But the 09/10 kit is not terrible much better than some of the rumored designs.

Aston Villa are choosing not to go with brown and orange, despite their massive success under owner Randy Lerner, they will stick with claret and sky blue (not to be confused with West Ham who also wear claret and sky blue ... here's why.) Villa also sticks with Nike and came up with this. Interestingly enough, the back story is that the team has produced many great players for the England National Team, and they wanted to honour that. I find it funny that the jerseys look eerily similar to a different National Team kit (Villa is owned by an American and both keepers are US Internationals, in fact the only country with more than one player representation on the squad is the US.

Perennial, stay-uppers Birmingham City... put out this lousy effort as their away kit. Did Umbro even try? I wore this kit as a U-11 for Eastside Kickers, just replace the sponsor with three yellow stripes and a white stripe.

I've always kind of had a crush on the Blackburn half and half kits of old, in which one side of the jersey would be blue with the other being white. It was always different, then they had last years Away Kit, which I find classy. This year's away kit is less than intriguing, but it serves it's purpose.

Bolton, YIKES just a tad bit to much going on there. I feel like if I look at the bottom part long enough, a bear might pop out in 3D, I don't understand the point in having weird patterns on the part that should be covered by your shorts, but when untucked it's even worse. And BTW that patch is a POCKET! Just in case you forgot to leave your keys in the locker room. This is a Reebok Kit, but Reebok is no longer the lead sponsor, maybe they are trying to take vengeance here.

Burnley are making their first appearance into the EPL, and they wear... claret and sky blue. Simple seeing as how there is a good chance they are going to be right back in Championship after 38 games or so.

And my boys Chelsea are taking some knocks for this weird sublimated sports bra home kit
I'm actually a bit disappointed in these kits, because I hadn't heard the Abramovich was putting a team in Le Tour de France until I saw these. As much as I am not feeling the home kit, take a loot at the away kit and 3rd kit. They both have the weird bra thing going on, which is supposed to be clima-cool, but the stripes make it a bit less obvious. What sucks is that the Big Clubs change their jerseys every single year, my Yellow kit. Not just kits, but colors, after a few years of yellow they have gone away from it.

Wedge has to go.

2009-05-16T09:49:00.000-04:00

Are the Indians a bad team this year? Or are they a good team with a manager who is unable to motivate them?

Obviously the bullpen issues can not be blamed on anyone but the pitchers in those situations, but there is no reason that the pen should be this bad.

In Friday's Plain Dealer, there is an article that says Wedge call out bullpen for... being lousy or something like that. This is after blowing a 7-0 lead to lose 8-7. Wedge was also ejected in this game, but one has to believe he still has say in the pitching decisions. There is no excuse for not going to a closer in a game that you should win. Instead they bring in a guy who hasn't pitched in three months, as the Guinness guys would say BRILLIANT!

However I'm not putting last night's loss entirely on the bullpen. The Indians are 2-2 in their last 4 games, and the two that they have lost, they have lost by one run. However, in both of those games an outfielder's inability to hit a cut-off man cost the team two unearned runs.
Ben Francisco's throw was way off line four days ago, which allowed both runners to move up and both of the runners scored on a single.
Shin Soo Choo throwing from Right-Field to third base to try and get Evan Longoria out bounced over DeRosa/Peralta's head and allowed Longoria to score and whoever hit it to move up to second. That guy also scored.

So the bullpen may be sucking but there is a lack of fundamentals on this team and that needs to be blamed on Eric Wedge. I've never been a big Wedge fan and I think it's time to move on.

Cain Park 2009

2009-04-24T11:41:00.000-04:00

Cain Park has released it's 2009 schedule for what I believe to be the first time in The Plain Dealer Friday magazine. Being a supporter of the Arts in the Heights (not by money, but by title) let's talk about it a little bit.

The following are shows that must be paid for. So Rootstock and Terrence Simien "fingers crossed" do not appear on the schedule.

The season kicks off on Wednesday, June 13 in the Evans Ampitheater with Anne Cochran. Cochran is best known for her hit single "Someone is Missing at Christmas" and for touring with Jim Brickman. Just what Cleveland needs a Christmas singer in June!
INTEREST: ZERO

The day before (Tuedsay, June 12th) in the Alma Theater is Harry Bacharach, a dead politician from Atlantic City. I'm assuming this is not that Harry Bacharach but with the attendance at some of the shows last season, maybe a dead guy would draw as well. A little more research shows me that Bacharach is a Cleveland based blues/jazz piano guy. A quick sample of one of his songs isn't to bad
INTEREST: FOUR

Another Alma Concert Series show on 6/16 is Gershwin '29. I would expect this to be some type of Gershwin Tribute. Though I'm not big on Gershwin, this show will probably do well.
INTEREST: THREE

JUNE 18TH sees the third show of the Alma Concert Series... September Songs, and again I have no idea what this is. Maybe a cover badn playing hits like Earth, Wind and Fire's "September" or The Temptations "September in the Rain"
INTEREST: N/A DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS

Finally we are back to the Evan's for Kelly Bell Band. They are not related to "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" hottie Kristen of the same last name. In fact Kelly Bell is a pretty cool looking blue playing black guy with dreads (he even has his own bobble-heads). I'm not much of a blues fan, but these guys look like they might be fun.
INTEREST: SIX

Playrights Weekend is the 19-21.

Big Cool Cats Music Festival on June 20th... Who's on the bill?
-70 Lewis, "a young alternative/progressive pop band featuring soulful vocals similar to Freddy Mercury on top of the pop sensibilities of Ben Folds." Sounds like fun!
-Cats on Holiday w/ the Mifune horn section. I played soccer with the guys from Mifune and they are a cool group. Mifune will play later. Here is there take on Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash .
-Mo Mojo a zydeco band
-Magpies indie/folk revivalists, Cleveland Scene "best Americana band"
-Mifune, afro-electronique they've got a really cool sound
-Ital, "old school reggae"
The show concludes with a jam session on the colonnade. It's a unknown Cleveland band festival, so it will be interesting. 70 Lewis looks real cool.
INTEREST: EIGHT

Long Road: Unbound in the Alma series It's the Budin group doing another benefit concert that people will flock to see. Not me, If i want to hear a cover band sing folk songs, I'll turn on Gone Country! on GMC.
INTEREST: THREE

"Happily Ever After" on 6/24 is a kids theater show, that will not star Hilary Duff despite it being dubbed a Cinderella tale.
INTEREST: TWO, unless Duff is there NINE

June 25 see Eric Bibb, who is not a member of the Bee Gees, maybe he is like Jon Bovi from SNL. Doubt it though, he is actually a blues guitar player. Because there are enough of those playing at Cain Park.
INTEREST: THREE

Groundworks Dancetheater... not reviewing

The first gig that people will have actually heard of comes on the 27th of June. She may be 69 but she's a Grammy Winner and that's Judy Collins. I'd rather see Joan Baez or Joni Mitchell but hey you can have every 60 something folk singing activist. Folk singing activists are so good because they are double negatives... folk singing and activist.
INTEREST: SIX, someday I can say I went to a Judy Collins concert, none of the music was relevant to 2009 when we had a Black President, and could have had a woman president.

The last concert in June is in the Alma and it's Cleveland guitarist Brian Henke. Henke puts on a good show, but I don't understand why people pay to see him when you can see him for free and the Metroparks.
INTEREST: FIVE

Livingston Taylor, who is the New York Jets of his family's musical talent, will be back for the upteenth year in a row. Just once could we get James to come along? maybe? just ocne it's all I ask.
INTEREST: THREE
That same night which is July 2nd is Juliette Regnier in concert. She's a singer that does not interest me.
INTEREST: ZERO

Arts Festival is the next weekend in between and a quick look at the schedule allows me to uncross my fingers, Yes I've been typing this with crossed fingers the whole time of course.

Brings us to July 17th for the band Eclectica, one would think that Eclectica would be a band of all sort of varieties, like having a band called Miscellaneous or Variety. Rather they are a jam band Supergroup bringing together the likes of Tracy Silverman on electric violin, Roy "Futureman" Wooten of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones on drums and Steve Forrest on bass. Here they are without Forrest, but with Wooten and Silverman and a high school orchestra
INTEREST: EIGHT

How about pairing up two of the greatest folk legends ever when Arlo Guthrie and Richie Havens take the stage on the same night. I don't know if it will be together or not, but should be a great show. That's on July 18th.
INTEREST: SEVEN

Of course 5 days later you can hear another folk legend, at least in terms of satirical music in John McCutcheon. McCutcheon will play a Kidzart show the day before.
INTEREST: SIX

As an usher we were told either Big Bad Voodoo Daddy or Squirrel Nut Zippers would be there, obviously you can't have two contemporary swing groups in the same summer. So obviously go with the lesser known one because odds are they are cheaper. So on July 25th you can come watch the Squirrel Nut Zippers. These guys haven't released a single since 1998, but there music has appeared in a bunch of films (mostly starring Brendan Fraser) like "Blast from the Past" and "Monkeybone" since 2001
INTEREST: SIX

Pointe of Departure takes stage on July 31st they are not Human but Dancer.

Pippin begins that night and runs through 8/23. Due to nobody watching "old musical theater," by old I mean, not Wicked, Avenue Q, and stuff that my generation thinks is good musical theater anymore the Park is going with one "show." Honestly I know nothing about.

Tartan Terroes come to town oon August 1st, and likely the Scots will be out of World Cup Qualifying by then. These guys look like tons of fun, what Celtic group isn't. There most popular song is Scotland Depraved. Got to love a group that says, "be aware we wrote this song after non-alcholic drinks... American Beer"
INTEREST: TEN

Verb Ballets more dancing. When is Soulja Boy gonna come to the Evans.

Over the Rhine on August 8th, not sure how to describe them. Here is what the website says "post-nuclear, pseudo-alternative folk-tinged art pop." Heres the classic Hallelujah, yes the song from Shrek which sounds much different than the song "The World Can Wait"
INTEREST: SEVEN

Soul and Heart Festival on the 14th, is Budin's group that already played earlier in the season Long Road, along with his brother Noah. Prayer Warriors (pop-gospel) and Kristine Jackson (contemporary blues, which I think means Aimee Mann?)
INTEREST: FIVE, If not to hear what the Prayer Warriors have to offer.

The next day brings in Canadian crooner Matt Dusk, those Canadians always working for less money than Michael Buble or Robin Thicke. Hmph, still he has a good voice and I think with the right promos the girls will go crazy for this one.
INTEREST: SIX

On the 16th a band you may have heard of called The Beach Boys take over and I'm guessing we won't be able to use our vouchers. Do I need to say anything about The Beach Boys?
INTEREST: TEN

Dancing Wheels more dancing

Everyones favorite 3 hit wonder? Maybe two hit wonder, but I can name three of their songs. Possibly the most under-appreciated band of the 90s. Gin Blossoms & Tonic Tour become the penultimate concert this summer on 8/21. Tonic Tour is a group I don't knwo anything about, possible an a capella group based on a wiki search, but I'm not sure.
INTEREST: ELEVEN!

Fan favorite Pavlo finishes the year up on August 22nd. I haven't seen him yet, but the Mediterranean "master showman" is supposed to be brilliant. Maybe this is the year.
INTEREST: SEVEN

Also there are five $2 Tuesday concerts you might want to check out. For $2 even if they suck, you only payed TWO FRICKIN BUCKS
-6/16 Steve Jochum and Big Zipper - I guess he is pretty well known in Cleveland, a rock-guitarist
-6/30 Walkin' Cane and Megan Slankard. Walkin' Cane is a blue guy who sounds pretty good on all his instruments. Megan Slankard might be hot, but I need to see for myself. Listed as a rock singer/songwriter, upon first look I have a feeling she is going to be a Fiona Apple or Liz Phair type artist. I like her and she only 5 years older than me, lol.
-7/14 Skinny, innovative pop-funk, whatever that means. I think I'm an innovative blogger, if I wasn't I certainly wouldn't be charging $2 for you to read this.
-7/28 Jonathan Kingham, a songwriting contest winner, and by the looks of things it was a pretty big contest National Telluride Troubadour Songwriting Contest (ever heard of it?)
-8/11 Arrogant Worms. These guys are a can't miss comedy trio. Think The Wiggles grow up and meet They Might be Giants who then crash a Barenaked Ladies concert and you have what I would describe the Arrogant Worms as. Check our Carrot Juice is Murder and Rippy the Gator. You might like Rocks and Trees, a brilliant anthem for Canada.

NFL Draft

2009-04-23T12:22:00.000-04:00

It's been a while. I apologize. A wise man once said "never let facts get in the way of a good story," hence I have no facts for why it's been so long.

Apparently there is this thing coming up on Saturday called the NFL Draft, and for the next 36 hours or so, we will hear every rumor imaginable...

-New York Jets make three way trade for Sage Rosenfels and Rex Grossman. One will start on Rosh Hashanah the other will star on Yom Kippur.
-Brady Quinn still on the board.
-Detroit Lions draft a receiver with the #1 pick.

However what we here in Cleveland are looking for is a pick that is not botched. I'm looking to get rid of Braylon Edwards and Derek Anderson as well, but it seems that only the Browns think Edwards is still worth a a 1st and a 3rd round pick. Not to mention how bad D.A. looked last night for the Fusion... his trade value is falling more and more each day.

Here are what some NFL guys have the Browns doing and what I think

Scott Wright of www.draftcountdown.com -- Michael Crabtree WR, Texas Tech
STUPID. Unless they trade Edwards they don't need Crabtree, especially when it been proven that late round receivers can have impact. Crabtree is not going to win games for this team, look at Calvin Johnson in Detroit. He's a great receiver, but they went 0-16 last year.

Mel Kiper of www.overrateddraftniks.com -- I'm not paying to read his crap analysis so I'll have to wait until Saturday when I hear him babble constantly during the draft.

Todd McShay of ESPN --BJ Raji DT, Boston College
Sure why not, I understand he can possibly play linebacker as well and assuming Aaron Curry is gone, he might be the best defensive player available.

draftzoo.com -- Aaron Maybin DE, Penn State
Not bad, I think him Orakpo are going to have similar careers, so why not take the guy with less injury history

WalterFootball.com -- Brian Orakpo DE/OLB, Texas
see above

Those are a few mock draft. Here are some things I do not want to see happen.
-Browns trade Brady Quinn and/or pick Mark Sanchez... Sanchez is not going to be that good, I'm not ready to give up on Brady Quinn
-Any Ohio State player or any player from the state of Ohio going to Pittsburgh... I'm tired of that, Holmes, Roethlisberger and Harrison.

Things I want to see happen.
-Browns trade Edwards and use the pick they get for Beanie Wells or Knowshon Moreno in that order
-Browns draft Pat White out of WVU
-J'Nathan Bullock ends up with the Browns be it with the 7th rounder or a Undrafted FA
-Detroit to take Mark Sanchez and get him off the baord so the Browns don't take him.
-Randy Lerner brings on of the Brad's from Aston Villa to punt on Sundays.

Missed Promotions (AL East Edition)

2009-04-11T18:40:00.000-04:00

DJ Gallo of ESPN's Page 2 gave his Best and Worst MLB Promotions a week or so ago. (read here)

But what about the promotions that didn't quite make it on the schedule.

AL EAST
The one they did
Tampa Bay Rays
Check out the Post-Game concert lineup Ludacris, Pat Benatar, Smash Mouth, Daughtry, B-52s, Big & Rich, and The Beach Boys
The one they missed
Bindi the Jungle Girl and the Crocmen. Check out "Animal Life" & "Trouble in the Jungle"
If you don't get it, then you and I clearly don't have the same sense of humor.

The one they did
Boston Red Sox
NOTHING, they don't have promotions listed on the website.
The one they missed
ABSOLUTly nothing, if your not going to do any promotions at least get a sponsor to not do any promotions

The one they did
New York Yankees
Dunkin Donuts Gift Card Night
1st 18,000 fans 21 and older receiver gift cards of a non-descript demonination
The one they missed
After the game you can sell back your gift cards to Jonathan Albaledejo (6'5 260) and CC Sabathia (6'7 290)

The one they did
Toronto Blue Jays
Magnet Schedule Day, Magnet Schedule Day, Magnet Schedule Day
Yes they gave away magnet schedules all three games during Opening Week
The ones they missed
Toronto F.C. Magnet Schedule Day, they draw more and have a chance to compete in the East.
Teetotaler Day... oh wait

The one they did
Baltimore Orioles
Orioles Alumni Autograph Series "Every Monday and Thursday home game at Camden Yards, come meet some of your favorite former Orioles! Two to three former players will be signing autographs at the MASN Booth on Eutaw Street (near Gate A) from one and a half hours before the game until 30 minutes before the first pitch."
The one they missed
Sidney Ponson Autograph Series "Every Monday and Thursday home game at Camden Yards, come meet some of your favorite former Orioles! Two to three former players will be signing autographs at the MASN Booth on Eutaw Street (near Gate A) from one and a half hours before the game until 30 minutes before the first pitch."

RIP Nick Adenhart

2009-04-10T00:41:00.000-04:00

There isn't really much to blog about here. It's frustrating that drunk drivers still drive and put themselves and others in dangerous situations, I can get on my high-horse about how stupid drunk-driving is, but what purpose would it serve?
I can tell you about how I've been following Nick Adenhart for the past few years, as a fantasy player, but more importantly as a baseball fan. This kid was going to be something special, I really believe that. Not just because Baseball America tells me so, but Adenhart seemed like a good kid, with a good head on his shoulders and excellent stuff. He was one of a new class of pitchers that wasn't going to change the game, but bring flare. Adenhart along with guys like Maz Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw and Brandon Morrow (until he went rogue closer on us) are guys I would to pay to see pitch. I'll watch Zambrano and Webb on TV, but the young guns are what people want to see. But even after a paragraph of that, I don't feel like I've given you any useful insight.
However, I think the thing that hits me hardest about this tragedy is tragedy itself. Unfortunately we live in a world where tragedy happens; kids bring guns to school, terrorist bomb buildings and Juliet fakes her death while Romeo never gets the memo. But sports are supposed to be our escape from the real world. Stuff like this is not supposed to happen, NFL Players are not supposed to drown on fishing trips, fans are not supposed to be trampled in stampede, team buses and planes are not supposed to crash.

Don't Look Now... BUT

2009-04-08T12:33:00.000-04:00

Some may call it rude to discuss physical attractiveness in terms of sports?

The WNBA can clearly attest to that, it's why nobody watches. Quick name the hottest player in the WNBA... waiting, waiting, waiting. Quick name a player in the WNBA... waiting, waiting, waiting. For the three of you that named Rebecca Lobo for the latter... she retired in 2003, for those who named her for the former... you should probably have that checked out. For those of you who named Rebecca Rushin... two points for you.

For years men have turned to European tennis girls for physical attractiveness. Anna,
Maria, Daniela, and Rafa. Every once in a while the States turn out a presentable racketeer like Alexa Glatch (currently 111th in the world), but unless you want to stretch and count Serena Williams and maybe Chris Evert, in her prime, the US has never provided the tennis world with a dime-piece like the Russians can.

American "hotties" come from otherwise un-talked about Olympic sports. Tennis is in the Olympics but the Olympics aren't even one of the 4 most important events and they only happen every 4 years, which by my math means there are 16 events more important than the Olympics every 4 years. The US has produced Amanda Beard and Natalie Coughlin- swimming, Misty May and Kerri Walsh - beach volleyball (look at them when they were younger what guy would not want to go to high-school or college with them), Jennie Finch- softball, a you-pick-it of pint-sized Gymnastics cuties and Sasha Cohen (honestly who didn't see that coming) - ice skating. Hope Solo (who I don't like, but can't argue that she is hot) and Heather Mitts (2004 ESPN Page 2 hottest female athlete) and yes even Mia Hamm (though not playing anymore), make appearances every couple years for a tournament like the Olympics or the World Cup.
Other than Danica Patrick and all of her overratedness, who can be seen in Nascar/Formula One/Funny Car Road Rallies all the time. We lack the weekly source of American hotties in sports.

So after the longest set-up to a blog ever I'm gonna tell you,

Don't Look Now... BUT you may want to start checking out the LPGA Tour. Yes the same LPGA Tour that gave us these women (1) (2) (3). Has now given us Natalie Gulbis (2002), and in the past 4 years, Erica Blasberg (2005) Paula Creamer (2005), , Brittany Lincicome (2005), Charlotte Mayorkas (2007), Tayor Leon (2008), Anna Rawson (2008), Tina Miller (Futures Tour) Courtney Erdman (Futures Tour). What's even better is that Rawson is the only non-American.

Oh yeah and by the way, the best player on the tour, Lorena Ochoa, is certainly not one to scoff at. So who's watching the Corona Championship in 2 weeks?

*(First full-time tour card, not when they became professional)

The Art of the No-Look Pass

2009-04-05T11:14:00.000-04:00

In terms of skill and excitement the No-Look Pass is right up there with the alley-oop, the bicycle kick and the back-handed glove flip byt the shortstop to the second basemen, who relays the throw to first, spinning around to set his body while jumping over the base-runner sliding at him to get the double play.

However there is a fine-line between the No-Look Pass and the Look-Away Pass, and the line increasingly gets crossed the more and more sports that make it on TV. At this rate when the Scrabble Championship shows up on The Ocho, somebody will blindly give up their turn, not even looking at the tiles. However if that same person contemplates their tiles for a minute and then looks elsewhere and says "pass," the result is the same but reached in a different way.

For example ... Steve Nash- No-Look or Look-Away? This one is a No-Look because when he releases the ball he can't see his teammate Grant Hill in the corner. But if you pay close attention, he pump fakes to him at 0:07, so he does sort of Look-Away

However this one ... Ronaldinho- No Look or Look-Away? At 0:12 which way is the "world's most creative player" looking??? DIRECTLY AT THE GUY HE IS GOING TO PASS IT TO!, if you didn't see that through ball coming than, there is no reason you should be playing in French Ligue 1. While Ronaldinho's passing takes skill to accomplish, a through ball of that variety is not easy, ask any high-school soccer player, he has single-handedly destroyed the No-Look Pass. He's made a name for himself performing the No-Look Pass by staring down his receiver as if he were Derek Anderson and then turning his head like Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil. Ronaldinho - No-Look or Look-Away 2, Ronaldinho - No Look or Look-Away 3, Ronaldinho - No-Look or Look Away 4... Is it essential that we need a 5th one? YES Ronaldinho - No-Look or Look-Away 5. And that is not the same play as #4, although they look pretty darn close. U14's make these passes and when succesful the coach (usually the kid's Dad) applauds as if he did something only Ronaldinho can do, while said father is halfway correct, his kid just made a big deal about a simple square ball, it is not that impressive because most 13-year-olds playing soccer have full mobility range in their necks and are capable of turning their head.

So here are a few more
LeBron James -No-Look or Look-Away?,
Jason Kidd- Definite No-Look!
Douchebag Wannabe- No-Look or Look-Away? Does it matter?

I checked Urban-Dictonary for a "hood" definition of a No-Look Pass. And needless to say didn't find what I was looking for. So I went to the next most reliable source Wikipedia. In the section Basketball moves, this one-of-a-kind pass is defined as ...

Blind pass

Also known as a no-look pass, the blind pass is performed when a player looks in one direction but passes the ball to his target in another direction. Blind passes are risky and infrequently attempted, but when done correctly, can confuse the defense. The no-look pass has been popularized by players such as Pete Maravich, Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant, and Steve Nash.

As you can see clearly this is not a reliable soure, because Kobe Bryant hasn't made a pass since 2002.

So what can we do to fix this fairy-tale that is the No-Look Pass? The wikipedia definition gets it mostly correct. When a player looks in one direction but passes the ball t his target in another direction. GOOD. Blind passes are risky and infrequently attempted, but when done correctly, can confuse the defense. GOOD. But there is nothing about the release of the pass. In order for a real No-Look Pass to occur the guy who makes the dish should

A. be looking the opposite direction when "beginnning the motion to release the ball." When Ronaldinho begins to play his passes he is looking at his target and then looks somewhere else. As I have stated numerous times, NOT A NO-LOOK!

B. be looking the opposite direction for at least the final 2/3rds of the time involved in the play. If the exchange takes three seconds he better be looking a different direction for the final two seconds of that play. (Like in Steve Nash's pass earlier, he never actually looks at Grant Hill once the play begins, but the pump fake alerts the viewer that he knows he is there). If the exchange only takes 1 second, for those of you scoring at home, you should probably avoid that road next time. But the basketball player better be looking a different direction for .67 seconds of that play.

USMNT vs El Salvador Live Blog

2009-03-28T19:50:00.000-04:00

Full Time
Down 2-0 you can't really complain about the draw. We stay top of the table, though I lost 55 cents on Centsports.com. Grades for each player
Guzan 6: Didn't do anything spectacular, didn't do anything atrocious. But Guzan doesn't have the presence back there of Howard, Friedel or Keller.
Pearce 5: Didn't get into the attack at all
(BRILLIANT HEINEKEN AD JUST SHOWED)
Bocanegra 5: A lot of wasted offensive passes
Califf 6: He's certainly not Gooch and at the end just kept chucking long balls in, with lots of time left. However his long ball was the reason they tied the game.
Hejduk 8: In a game that you should have won and you end up with a draw, nobody can get a 10 but Frankie was involved in both goals and he is your right back. Though he did get beat on the second goal, though that was one heck of a cross.
Beasley 5: Never went at anyone, never changed speeds, didn't really attack much. I think he got caught in a bad spot when Jozy came on for Pearce as he needed to drop back a bit.
Bradley 6: Just like against Mexico, Bradley was "in the picture" all the time. You know how they talk about a football player getting on the film at the end of a play. Bradley runs all over, not always with great purpose, but he is always in on 50/50 balls and works hard.
Dempsey 5: Got stuck taking to many touches way to many times.
Donovan 3: Is his loan at Bayern over? Did the Galaxy have a game tonight? Because he certainly wasn't anywhere on this pitch.
Ching 3: Squandered to chances to win the game. And didn't do anything good. When is Bradley going to realize that this is not the Big Ten. We don't need big physical bodies that can't put the ball in and/or through the net.
Altidore 8: Just think if he had been playing at Xerez how good he would be. Maybe Bradley will play start him. Scores a great goal and almost sets up a winner unfortunately he was passing to Ching.
Torres 5: He didn't get much chance to do anything. In his short amount of time he stepped on the pitch and we gave up a goal. He played the ball on the game tying corner. If he is supposed to be the next great midfieler we are going to need to start brewing some midfielders.
Edu N/A: Unlike the idiots at ESPN who will give Edu a 5 and say something stupid. I will not give him a grade he came on for 90 seconds due to a freak accident.

90+7
Ching goes for a bicycle kick instead of turning and facing the goal which he had time to do as the keeper was on the ground. Squanders his second opportunity to win the game. See 90+6

90+6
Brian Ching blows the game winner by kicking it right at the keeper. See 86th minute.

90+5
Edu for Bradley on a blood injury without enough time to fix. Guzan just tried to give anyone wearing red tonight a heart attack.

90+4
Bocanegra dribbling up the field with no pressure and throws it away on a terrible pass to Beasley. We've got about 4 minutes up stoppage time left, depending on what's going on with Bradley

90+2
US Corner kick from Torres lefty outswinger, Bocanegra or Dempsey couldn't quite tell goes for the bike after Gomez (keeper) scrambles around his 6.

90th minute
How much stoppage are we going to have should be no less than 5 minutes. They just showed it 7 minutes. That is a crapload of time for a goal.

87th minute
Corner after Danny Califf throws his third Hail Mary of the last 4 minutes. And my boy Frankie Hejduk puts it in. Anyone who says he's to old, doesn't watch him play enough. The hardest working guy on the field. The US should be looking at 3 points, this keeper is shaking, they have all the momentum and El Salvador is doing exactly what teams can't do. Play not to lose.

86th minute
Hey look, Brian Ching can't catch up to a ball lofted in for him. See 77th minute.

85th minute
This team doesn't have much depth in the midfield. In terms of shape and guys on the bench. Torres is not showing me anything here.

82nd minute
Ladies and Gentleman I present the gay-elected politician in El Salvador... his name is MILK. He will continue to be in power for the next 8 minutes + stoppage time.

77th minute
JOZY! JOZY! JOZY!
Dear Mr. Bradley
Brian Ching is useless, please play Jozy Altidore more often.
Sincerely,
Kyle

75th minute
SLV keeper is done, this is our chance to get some chances. This guy has to be nervous.

71st minute
US needs to score soon. Torres comes in and has a -1 goal differential without being on the pitch for 15 seconds. Guzan is not ready for the World Cup or a qualifier.

58th minute
Free kick play it like a corner, Beasley to hit a left footed in swinger. Over the bar. Good opportunity, and now the El Salvador keeper is hurt. Can't see much in the replay, they are treating it like cramps. But I don't think he's staying on. And Jozy Altidore is coming on!!! They bring out a defender. Will this look like a straight 3-4-3, or does someone drop back. We are approaching 4 minutes from the time of the free kick and the keeper still isn't up yet.

56th minute
Michael Bradley yellow card, first American to get his name in the scorebook. Well Done!

50th minute
Ching on his own and can't do anything with it. What good is a striker that can't take on a defender?

Halftime
After a little excursion in our reptile room, I'm back. I've got to say the US is playing like shite. Luckily El Salvador hasn't been that good either. The goal was nice, but that's all they've really done. They need to come out better in the second half.

23rd minute
Another good opportunity for the US spoiled. They've got a free kick here with a chance. This blogging thing is not as fun as I had hoped. There is to much action to keep typing. I'm done until halftime, unless something cool happens.

17th minute
Corner kick for the US and the female yells Go Gringos. I don't know what she's talking about (nor does she), but gringos, sounds like something hispanic. So I said no more of that.

15th minute
US standing around and jumping in and watching the guy dribble around GOAL to El Salvador. You could see that one coming from the time they started the run. US has owned possession and run of play, very unfortunate.

13th minute
I'm giving Ching the benefit of the doubt on that pass, but he just stood there and waited for the ball. I love when the announcers start talking about how good someone looks 13 minutes into the game. Dellacamera and Harkes saying that Bradley and Kljestan are doing a great job in the midfield because theya re touching the ball.

11th minute
El Salvador earns the games first corner. I'm not huge on Guzan so lets hope that nothing to close comes in on a corner.

8th minute
Great chance for the US, though the player who put in the cross certainly looked offside and then Kljestan (I think) miss hit the finish.

4th minute
First no call of the game... and it's a good one. Ching took a horrific 23 yard shot, shot #1 down earlier. Dempsey also got one off, that was saved.

9:08 PM
A couple friends came over to watch the game with me (YAY! I'm not alone), and the female insists on making brownies, so I have to show her where everything is in the house. But here we go... Bradley goes with pretty much the same lineup as Mexico except Califf comes in for Onyewu and Howard on yellow card suspension (which I maintain that he did on purpose) is replaced by Guzan.

Ching Donovan

Beasley Bradley Kljestan Dempsey

Pearce Bocanegra Califf Hejduk

Guzan

And the Ching drinking game begins shortly. USA in white. El Salvador in blue.

9:02 PM
Pregame begins, lots of blue!
7:49 PM
I owe you guys a blog. It's been a long time and while I'm working on my Miami trip memoirs, I felt it would be a nice token to give you a live World Cup Qualifier blog. I've always wanted to do a live blog (and actually do it live, not type it and then post it). I figure rather than tweeting or status updating, I'll do it in my blog. I'm finally watching Heroes... from Monday the 23rd, so I'll be back shortly.

Kyle XY

2009-03-16T23:34:00.000-04:00

This blog post can be summed up in one three-letter text lingo. WTF?

That was possibly the worst ending in the history of entertainment. But for a little bit of fun let me discuss some of my least favorite endings in other aspects of life.

Movies: In Good Company, after all that nothing happens. I saw this movie with three guys "no homo," and we wanted so badly for Topher Grace to end up with Randy Quaid's daughter Scarlett Johansen. Maybe we were all spoiled from Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, but the ending of this was very disappointing.

Music: Punk Goes Pop 2, thank goodness I didn't buy it. I listened on Youtube, and every single song was pretty much terrible. So I guess the beginning, middle and ending sucked.

Sports: see 1997 World Series or any other Cleveland sporting event you choose.

Beverages: Dr. Pepper, the ending of any Dr. Pepper 12 oz can, 20 oz bottle, 2 liter bottle, 21 oz fountain cup, is disappointing.

Food: Let's not even go there.

The Beverage Section 2

2009-03-16T18:39:00.000-04:00

We hath moved on through the month, it hath now been a fortnight since I hath become years of 20 plus one. The fair city of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin hath reached with open arms towards me a flavor unmatched by the beverage of everyman. This wonderlust of flavor cometh in a 12 oz bottle of Leinenkugel's Sunset Whea t.

Yes, it may be a bit citrusy, but it's okay because I am very in touch with my feminine side. I first experienced this bit of liquid heaven in the form of a draft at BW3s after my indoor soccer teams' first victory of the year, on Monday the 9th. To date it is the best beer I have had, and I am happy to call it my "old reliable"
We followed up that game with a second win on Thursday the 12th, that night I went for a pint of Newcastle Brown Ale. My hopes were high but, just like Newcastle FC, OVERRATED. I was extremely disappointed. It was just kind of there. Because I was not driving that night, I also took in my first Cleveland beer. I know all about the Great Lake Brewing Company, but I hadn't yet tried one. So I told our fearless leader and team captain to pick me something good. He hooked me up with a Holy Moses White Ale. Once again I've already decided I'm not big on the light beers, but this wasn't bad. I don't think it's one that I would consume again though.

In addition to those three, I had a Guinnnnness at dinner today with Corn Beef (St. Patrick's Day early). I also bought my first bottle of spirits, Lauder's Scotch. I'm sure I will have more to report next week, as I travel to Miami this weekend in hopes of a Sweet 16 appearance for the Vikings.

The Night Cap

2009-03-13T21:01:00.000-04:00

Orange/Mountaineers (ESPN 206)
Cavs/Kings (FSOH 660)
Sun Devils/Huskies (MSG+ 635)
Matadors/Banana Slugs (ESPNU 614)
Fliers/Dukes (MASN 640)
Eagles/Blue Devils (ESPN2 209)
Nittany Lions/Boilermakers (BTN 610)
Cougars/Aztecs (CBSC 613)

Those are listed from most interesting to least interesting.

With the earlier evening games finishing up and/or not even close...
Maryland knocks off Wake which moves them closer to the Big Dance, probably hurting the Vikings. (Joe Lunardi has just put Maryland in, moving Florida out)
Baylor knocks off Texas, putting them one win away from the Big Dance as they go to the championship against the winner of OK State/Mizzou. Baylor is not in unless they win, but it is hard to believe that the Big 12 Champions even at 5-11 in conference, gets lower than a 12 seed.
Tennessee is up on Alabama by 23, the SEC is really bad.
Buffalo over Ball St by 9, and it has been right around there for two or three minutes.
Temple over Xavier could also move them closer to the tourney, they were a possible at-large candidate. With a win in the A-10 final they are obviously in, not sure without it.
Illinois held serve, making Ohio State the only Big 10 team to get an upset in the tourney with Purdue up 21-12, ten minutes into their quarterfinal.

6 OTs, UNC and the Buckeyes Start Soon

2009-03-13T14:22:00.000-04:00

Mr. Pibb and Red Vines equals CRAZY DELICIOUS! Today equals Lazy Friday. No classes, not heading to Milwaukee for the Women's Semi-final but plenty of basketball to watch.

And it starts with a game that didn't end until today. Syracuse/UConn, this game obviously had big time ramifications for the irrational CSU fans like me, who think that we can move up to an 11 seed. If The 'Cuse wins the Big East tourney, their RPI would skyrocket (they went from 18 to 14 with the victory over UConn). Meanwhile, West Virginia's (a team that CSU held to 53 points) domination of Pitt shot them from 26 RPI to 19. Obviously the more that CSU opponents win the better. So when Syracuse and WVU meet tonight, either way it's going to help the Vikes in terms of RPI, whether it will help their seed is up to the committee.

As the Michigan St/Minnesota game just didn't peak my interest I had to watch the Hokies take on UNC, which of course stand for University of No Calls. Obviously the ACC did not want Va Tech to win this game. I may be a bit biased, because I really don't like Tyler Hansborough, Roy Williams or any ACC team in North Carolina, but Hansborough gets to do whatever he wants, and never gets called. He didn't foul out twice like Hasheem Thabeet did last night (at least 7 fouls were not called at the Garden in that OT fest). But like I mentioned before there has never been a basketball game in which one team has committed 9 fouls and another team has committed 3 fouls. That might be the way it gets called, but that does not happen. The Hokies could not overcome the foul disparity, unlike the Vikings who overcame the Horizon League's three best officials, Tim Donaghy, Graham Poll and Brad Stevens.

Another Post???

2009-03-12T14:31:00.000-04:00

I know what your thinking, I'm posting something every few minutes it seems. Well as we all know this is the most exciting week in sports. The World Baseball Classic is on!!!

Anyway Baylor just upset Kansas in the Big 12 Tourney. I have decided I am cheering for teams that should not be in the tourney to win unless it is a team that we played. Baylor is not an at-large, so if they run the table they might bump CSU up to an 11 seed. The same goes for a team like Iowa or Georgia. Teams that would not be in otherwise. It's all conjecture but here is what I want in a few high-profile conferences.

Big Ten: Iowa or Ohio State wins
Big 12: Baylor or Kansas State wins
Big East: Syracuse or West Virginia wins
C-USA: anyone but Memphis
A-10: Temple or Dukwesnee

***Let's add Georgia Tech to that list. How about a team that went 2-14 in the ACC, with a loss to UIC, Virginia, Alabama and twice to NC State, in the tournament? No way they are a 12 seed.

The Dream Tourney Run

2009-03-12T01:14:00.000-04:00

Ah yes the speculation of where teams will be placed and what is going to happen. The following is not in anyway really going to happen, unless something crazy happens like the selection committee reads this blog and thinks it is really good. If they did read it they would probably find the ideas strong, the writer good looking, and all the content above average. Obscure reference alerts in case you are lost.

So anyway it looks to me that Cleveland State, who enters their first NCAA Tourney in 23 years, will be a 12 seed or a 13 seed. There is a little speculation that they could jump up to an 11 seed. And I am going to run with that for a few minutes.

Why? Well it appears that the game locations are already determined, but the teams that will be there are not. The 12s and the 13s play at Boise, Portland or Miami. As a college student fighting his way through these tough economic times, none of those are really legitimate destinations for a fan trip. (Italics are used for sarcasm, because I have always found money to burn holes in my pocket and always seem to be on tough economic times.)

However one 11 seed will find itself in the Wachovia Center home of the Philadelphia 76ers, Flyers and the now-defunct-Kixx. That is a makable bus trip and/or carpooling road trip. I don't think that we can get their but if we did it would mean heading to Boston for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8, before driving up to possibly the worst place to watch a basketball game Ford Field. I say this because the difference between a football field and a basketball court sums up to this; 12 players, approximately 23,000 square feet, and stuff actually happens more than every other minute.

Realistically that is probably not likely so here is my ultimate CSU Vikings journey.
As a 12 seed in the South (Memphis) Bracket the team would head to Miami, for their first round game against a 5 seed. Different predictions lead to very different ideas so some predict Gonzaga as a 5 other predict Gonzaga as an 8. Gonzaga having to come all the way to Miami, unfair as it may be fits perfectly into the 2 hour-rule (team traveling to a city more than 2 hours time difference of their home lose and Gonzaga is 3 hours). CSU would have the time zone advantage and the Jewish retiree advantage (how many Jews do you know in Spokane?) and the fact that they actually play defense working for them against The Bulldogs.
They would advance to the Round of 32. Some would argue a 4 seed Syracuse team is a great option here, but not in my books. A team like Syracuse isn't going to get caught sleeping against us again, and I don't think we can pull off that upset twice. Here we look to a Big Ten team like Illinois. CSU LOVES playing defense and Illinois lost in a game that was 38-33. That benefits a great defensive team that scores in bunches. So after we beat them, it's on to Memphis, a flight to Nashville is pretty cheap on Southwest, and I might ask my Uncle for a ride to Memphis in exchange for some quality time with his eldest nephew. In Nashville we take a #1 seed. I don't care who it is because the important part is we beat them. It will be a huge upset no matter who it is so I don't really care what team, though I do think J'Nathan can handle Tyler Hasbeenbroken. So a UNC #1 would be cool, but unlikely as they would get to play in Greensboro if they are a #1 seed. Anyway after that.
We stick around for the Elite 8 game against arch-rival Butler who got shafted into a 7 seed. They take out the 10 and the 2, Dayton and Kansas respectively. If Kansas doesn't choke against #15 seed Kent State in the first round. We beat Butler on a buzzer beater, evening the season series at 2-2, and 2-0 in favor of the Vikes in games that actually mean anything. It doesn't have to be a buzzer beater but it would be OH SO SWEET. Though the Horizon League might have to move their offices to Cleveland if we start winning games at neutral sites and not Hinkle Fieldhouse
We go to the Final Four in Detroit and I could not care less what happens next. We could lose 100-0 and I would still have had a dream season, that is unless the team doesn't put in their reserves until the third quarter.

Whats the Diff?

2009-03-12T00:48:00.000-04:00

This includes conference tournament results, but what separates these two teams so much in the mind of bracketologists?

TEAM A: 22-10 (12-6 in 12th RPI Conference)/ RPI 55/ SOS 111/ RPI Top 100 Wins: RPI 18, RPI 24, RPI 91, RPI 73 (2x)/Record Against RPI Top 100 5-7 Bad Losses: RPI 132 RPI 160 RPI 243

TEAM B: 23-6 (11-5 in 15th RPI Conference)/ RPI 46/ SOS 146/ RPI Top 100 Wins: RPI 72, RPI 43, RPI 23/Record Against RPI Top 100: 2-4/ Bad Losses: RPI 118, RPI 193

All I can see is the loss to the 243 RPI Team. And maybe the winning percentage.

I didn't put names because I'd like to see if anyone can guess. I'll give a hint. One of these teams was supposedly a strong at-large candidate, the other was definitely not.

CSU is Team A and St. Mary's is Team B. When you put the numbers together there is no explanation for why one week ago, St. Mary's was a possible 9 or 10 seed, while CSU was likely an 8 seed in the Not Invited Tournament (NIT).

Interesting to me, but maybe not to you.

Letter to the Commissioner

2009-03-09T13:49:00.000-04:00

Dear Mr. LeCrone

Let me first begin by saying, I hope this letter finds you. I wasn't sure where exactly to send it, 201 S. Capitol Avenue or 510 W 49th Street. Then I realized if someone over at Hinkle receives it, that probably doesn't matter since Butler sets the rules, gets all the calls and runs the league anyway.
Saturday night, I understand that you witnessed something you had hoped would never happened. It's clear to me that you were disappointed from the comments your cronies made to the students sections of Cleveland State University and Milwaukee, both whom were cheering against the #2 seed Green Bay.
I am a firm believer that the Horizon League is an Equal Opportunity League, however it is the worst league to be a student-fan as you can only speak if you are being fair to both teams and the officials.
But if you are a Butler fan it is completely OK to whine about everything. Yes that's right. Butler fans can BOO or yell swear words at the officials when they first enter the building, when they make a good call, when they make a bad call, when Matt Howard does a Cristiano Ronaldo impression, when Gordon Hayward finally turns 14. They even BOO when they win, which doesn't make sense since the Hinkle officials are hand-picked by a fan-ballot. I am worried that if they lose, someone might get seriously hurt.
When I read that you felt the current tournament set up was working perfectly, I was fairly disappointed. Ever since the league offices moved to Brad Stevens' secretary's desk, no team had ever made the final without the double-bye. And then you had to watch the Vikings go screw up your brilliant system. Guess the system doesn't work as well as you thought it did. Hopefully this didn't affect the Horizon's favorable partnership with Playground Chalk, because its clear that nobody wants to see upsets in March.
You said "It gives kids a chance to play in front of bigger crowds," clearly your analysis was proven correct, as each student athlete got a chance to "play" in front of 9,870 people leaving before the game even started. And by "play" I mean they each got to see them all leave as they did start to warm-up.
Though I disagree with you on the above aspect, I must say though that charging $5 for people to watch online was a great idea. The fact that almost nobody actually got to see Friday night's games unless they wanted to donate money to the Bulldog Scholarship Fund was marketing brilliance.
I look forward to seeing some more of your ideas in the coming future. Here are a few I would like to propose...

1. Change the logo from the weird person shaped like a star to a blue and white bulldog.
2. Give Butler a bye into the trophy presentation and let everyone else play for a shot in the NIT or the Insider.com Tourney.
3. Give tazers to all security guards, any person in the facility not wearing Butler apparel, and talking should be tazed.
4. Since you want big crowds, play every game at the home of whichever team is eliminated first. The Detroit-Mercy fans will come out in droves to watch a team from Dayton play a team from Northwest Indiana.
5. Put every game on the Horizon League website and charge $10 for a live feed with a $5 fee for the gamecast.

The GISSER

2009-03-03T22:07:00.000-05:00

Your wondering what kind of title that is. Well I'll explain, now for those of you who are not Fantasy Sports fans you will probably feel reading this is a waste of time. And I might agree with you. However you can still learn some interesting stuff by reading, even if it doesn't help you in your next Auction Draft.
Earlier today I was looking at two different baseball websites. A few of the guys and one lady from Church of the Saviour organized a Fantasy Baseball league last year, Major League Churchball. Clever eh?
So I was doing some research on ESPN.com as well as baseballdocs.com. I realized that the two websites had players ranked differently. (I didn't really realize this, it's common knowledge, but for the purpose of wording I realized it). Every site is going to have players ranked differently, the question is why? Not only why? but which players do I need to know why and which players are not ranked all that differently in the grand scheme of things. Alex Rodriguez is #1 on ESPN and #2 on BaseballDocs, that really doesn't matter, if you have pick No. 1 you are taking the guy that you want (most likely Rodriguez, Pujols, or Hanler Ramirez). The guys that matter are guys like James Shields who is #85 on BaseballDocs and #54 on ESPN or Rafael Furcal who is #114 on BaseballDocs and 72 on ESPN. So I present you the GISSER (Gauging Indications of Statistical Standing and Estimated Rating). It can also stand for Garbagy Idiotic Stupid Suggestions Estimated Randomly, but I prefer the first one as it is more truthful.
I know! Your anxious! What is this magical device!
I have to tell you that it is not so much magical as an exact science, and if it were magical I would not be able to tell you. This takes time to do, you can't just subtract and figure it out. You need a graphing calculator as well as FOUR hilighters.
Oh yeah what does it do, maybe I should explain that first. Basically you can take any two groups of rankings and find out what players have major discrepancies in the rankings. I would suggest using the site that your league is hosted on as well as a site you find searching in Google. Olaf's Oakland Athletics Blog is probably not a good one, because Eric Chavez and Jason Giambi have not been good for Fantasy owners for at least 5 years. For example in performing the GISSER I learned that while AJ Burnett is ranked 99 Overall by BaseballDocs and 125 Overall by ESPN (20th Best SP by BaseballDocs ad 28th Best SP by ESPN) The 26 player differential is really not as big as it looks.
Why that might be depends. For example BaseballDocs and ESPN had the first 9 pitchers ranked exactly the same in terms of position, but ESPNs first 9 were all rated significantly higher than BaseballDocs in terms of overall (no less than difference of 5, which is half a round in a Fantasy draft). What this means is that ESPN values a Top 10 pitcher more than BaseballDocs, but they agree on which pitchers should go in what order. What you must decide when drafting is how much you value a Top 10 pitcher and whether you agree with these so-called experts. After performing the GISSER I found that the rankings for the First 12 Pitchers by both websites were close enough that the only real discrepancy is value vs other positions, not the stats they will give you. When you get deeper down you find much more difference (Gavin Floyd has a positional difference of 30+, that is a red flag).
Step 1: You now have your two websites, write down the O-Ranks (overall ranking) and the P-Ranks (positional rank) for the amount of players you think will actually be drafted one position at a time for now(In a 10 team league 70 pitchers is resourceful enough in most cases, 20 catchers is more tha enough, and your probably looking at 60 outfielders). With pitchers I used BaseballDocs top 63 and then threw in a handful I've guys I like.
Step 2: You are now going to subtract the difference between the websites for each player (overall-overall and positonal-positional). Burnett has a O-Rank Diff of 26 (that's absolute value, depends on which one you wrote down first).
Step 3: If you are using a graphing calculator add all your values into a list. There are two ways to do this, you can include negatives or you can use absolute value. I used absolute value for pitchers and JUST REALIZED I DID IT DIFFERENTLY FOR CATCHERS AND SHORTSTOPS. Good thing I'm writing this to you guys.
Step 4: After performing an outlier test that tells me that players who have a differential of 55 or more are outliers, and getting rid of their values from the list. I perform the 1-Variable Stats function. This tells me that the mean, that's average in laymens terms, is 21.3. The standard deviation is 13.9. I decided that any time a player's Rank Diff is more than one standard deviation away from the mean, I will check to find out what the reason is. This is also a player I want to go check a third website for information on, and see which one is closer.
Step 5: Get out your hilighters. I used 4 because I had four different things to look for.

ESPN O-Rank is lower than BaseballDocs O-Rank (pink)
ESPN O-Rank is higher than BaseballDocs O-Rank (orange)
ESPN P-Rank is lower than BaseballDocs P-Rank (blue)
ESPN P-Rank is higher than BaseballDocs P-Rank (yellow)

BY THE WAY, HIGHER MEANS BETTER... 1, 2, 3 IS HIGHER THAN 46, 47, 58. IT DOES NOT REFER TO THE NUMBER, BUT THE RANKING.

Step 6: Now take your hilighters and hilight the players that fit each of those terms. I learned that Justin Verlander's Overall Rank is (not <> = x +/- sx), but it is when it comes to Positional Rank. That equation should read ... not less than or greater than the equation mean plus or minus standard deviation, in case you wondered, and/or don't understand my computer skills of determining equations. Basically it means that Verlander's 125 BasbeallDocs O-Rank vs his 157 (32 was inside the range of -22.12-37.47) ESPN O-Rank is not something to worry about, but his 25 BaseballDoc P-Rank vs 38 ESPN P-Rank is (13 was not inside the range of -7.17-9.83).
Conclusion: Now you are sitting doing one of two things... Wondering why on earth you spent your time reading this, you have not come out any more knowledgeable about Fantasy Baseball and you don't think this equation really means anything. Or you are getting your 2B rankings out and preparing to do some fancy math. I have succeeded. You have read this and you are going to try it and use my advice, or you won't use it and I will be a better Fantasy Player than you.

The Beverage Section

2009-03-02T13:29:00.000-05:00

As some of you know today is my 21st birthday. Hip Hip Hooray. Since I'm not at a college where I can go crazy, or really into that kind of thing, one might say it's been uneventful. However I am going to disagree. The great thing about turning 21 is not that you can get drunk, it is that you can drink. I plan to take the next few weeks or so to take in the great beverages that my elders have experience for longer than I have.
Last night I served up a few Mango Mojitos for the family, which leads me to my first lesson about drinking. Never follow the instructions on the back of the cocktail mix bottle. I should have probably realized this but, because of course they want you to buy more of the mix. So 3 oz of mix and 1 oz of light rum. We happened to have some of the stuff with the bat on it (find out why there is a bat on it here). Here is how that conversation went;
Family: Cheers!
Keith: Umm
Kyle: yeah it's kind of sour, I followed the directions on the bottle
Keith: kind of sour? all I can taste is the mix
Becki: are you sure you did it right?
Kyle: yeah, (laughing and spitting at the same time)
Becki and Keith : (nearly spit it out)
Kyle: next time I'll use a little more rum.

Even before that had happened I went to CVS so I could buy my first legal beer. With limited choices that I had not already tasted (I had tasted Heineken, Corona, Miller Hi-Life etc.) I chose The Great American Lager, Budweiser. If Budweiser is the King of Beers apparently Barqs is the Queen and IBC is the Court Jester. Maybe the Clydesdales somehow got into the brewery, because it was terrible (use your inference skills here). I can't imagine how weak a Bud Light would be if when the real thing taste like dish water. Leads me to Lesson #2 if you have had beer in a foreign country, you probably are not going to like anything that you find in a drugstore. American beer is WEAKER than a Friedberg and Seltzer movie at Cannes.

That is where we stand at appx. 1:58 PM, the rest fo the day hold in store a "Create Your Own Six Pack" that I got from World Market. That includes the six and I will be letting you know what i think as the day goes on.
The Short Stubby Ugly Bottle I was a little disappointing, to me this was just another beer. It was good, but nothing special. Hey, You can't win 'em all. Just goes to show you that great ad campaigns don't necessarily mean great product.
Eine Königin unter den Bieren which literally translates to "A Queen Among the Beers," can't wait to compare it against "the King" The one I've been waiting for, I saved this for last because I knew how good it was. This was easily my favorite mass-produced beer in Deutschland when I went in 2004 (Drinking age 16 BTW) so I knew I would still like it. And I did. Though my parents questioned my decision to finish it in about 15 minutes. I didn't think it was that big of a deal.
The Chosen Beer no not LeBron's favorite beer, but a Kosher beer. I really liked this one, I have been drinking out of the bottle mostly, but I decided to pour this one into a glass to see the color (though for some reason all of our frozen beer mugs, have bits of frozen peppers, or ceiling plaster in them so I just poured it into a regular glass). A deep reddish brown, and it was delish. If it Kosher for Passover I could see myself having Matzoh Ball Soup, Fruit Gels and He'Brew a couple times during those 8 days.
Chocolate Beer I have heard this called "a mouth orgasm," sounds like fun. I think. Maybe Not, when you really think about it. took a sip at about 7:30pm, ended up giving the rest to my Dad, not feeling it. Kind of tasted like someone spilled beer in your morning coffee, not my cup of tea (no pun intended)
HofBrau Munchen Original a Bavarian classic finished around 3:15 pm Ah yes that is what a real beer should taste like. You can actually taste it.
HopDevil it had a cool label, and sounded like an American beer that might actually have flavor. Finished at about 8:45. It had hops alright. Definitely 'menacingly delicious.' Victory Brewing Co has another one that looks like fun called "Golden Monkey" a Belgian style ale, with Asian spices.

I still have to go on the official Beer and Football Sponsorship Tour where I do Newcastle Brown, Guinness, Strongbow, Krombacher, T-Mobile etc.

Tonight for dinner is Don Tequila's Mexican Restaraunt, so I have to decided between a Dos Equis or a Modelo Negro.
Lesson 3 when you start to reach for your wallet to pull out your ID before the guy even asks you what you want, they are not likely to ask for your ID. This was the instance in my Mexican Restaraunt escapade. I ended up getting Modelo Negro, and I was feeling it. Not completely sure what to do with the awkwardness of the lime; do you squeeze it; take it out and watch it sit there; try to drink with it there; drop it in the drink. It's a debatable subject for many. Mine fell in anyway so I didn't have much choice.

Spring Training Strike Three

2009-02-27T17:49:00.000-05:00

I got to watch the game today and am not going completely off the box score.

Three Up
1. The play that Luis Valbuena made in the 9th was B E A utiful. Who cares if the guys was safe, plays like that will make people forget many guys that played middle infield for the Indians. This guy, this guy, maybe this guy, Tony Fernandez, but never this guy.
2. VICTOR!!! Two no-doubt-about-it jacks.
3. Matt Herges pitched well again and Kobayashi hot-dogged it out of a jam. (Yeah, I know really old joke).
Three Down
1. Grady will miss the WBC because of a groin injury. I think the WBC is a joke, but I still think the idea of representing your country is cool and I think he would give them a better chance to win.
2. It seems way to easy to hit home runs at Goodyear Park.
3. Ryan Garko in left, hehe. I think Garko is an underrated bat, but if Victor and Shoppach are hitting he won't see much time. He didn't screw up at all, but he's way to slow to play in the outfield. So it sucks in a cyclical way.

By the way Kellen Winslow certainly got out of here fast. He already had a press-conference in a Buccaneers polo. But he insists that Cleveland treated him right. Elsewhere in the news Harvey Dent was traded from DC to Marvel.

2009-02-27T15:21:00.000-05:00

The Browns made their first significant roster move of the off-season earlier today when they traded Kellen "I'm 'a kill 'em" Winslow to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This opens the door for my boy Martin Rucker, I've been talking about Rucker since his senior year at Mizzou. The guy has great hands and is built very similarly to Winslow. (Rucker is 6'4 260 compared Winslow's 6'4 248.) Their 40 times are similar (Rucker ran a 4.63 and Winslow ran a 4.51). If you've never seen Rucker play check out his highlight reel. Winslow will now get to catch passes from one of the 7 McCown brothers.
Assuming that the Browns got a 3rd or 4th rounder for Winslow, I think this is a good trade. A fifth or sixth round pick it's not bad. Randy Moss went for a 4th round pick when he was traded to the Flying Elvi.
A couple guys that might be around at the end of the 3rd round in this upcoming draft. Brian Robiskie (Ohio State), PJ Hill (Wisconsin), Ian Johnson (Boise State), Derrick Williams (Penn State) and those are just offensive players.
What this also does is affect the Browns cap space. Maybe with the 6 million or so that they save they can go out and sign Ray Lewis, Derrick Ward, James Farrior or re-sign Sean Jones, which I think they will do anyway.
Until we get more, which I'm sure we will tomorrow, it's hard to say what the trade will do, but I definitely am on Mangini's side on this one. Winslow was not good for the locker room, and I'm not talking about the fact he had staph.
What's next??? I was really hoping to package Winslow and DA for something. Now that Shaun "weight issues" Rogers wants out after a great year, they have to trade him. If you outright release him, you just gave up your shutdown corner and a third round pick for a Pro-Bowler who helped the team to a 4-12 record and then complained that he can't make weight. Heck, Braylon probably wants as well, since he is a marked-man coming from Michigan. I actually could see Mangini bringing in Laveranues Coles, who was released yesterday.
I think this trade is going to bring on a lot of roster changes, some that we may or may not agree with, but this first one is a good start.

Spring Training Day 2

2009-02-26T19:17:00.000-05:00

Same thing as last time. Three good things and three bad things. I again didn't see the game, because I was at school this time. Remember don't pay much attention to this stuff, it's essentially useless, until pitchers are pitching 4 innings.

Wednesday Feb. 25, 2009 L 10-7 vs ARI
Three Up
1. Josh Barfield looks good. if he gets on track, I think he is better than Asdrubal, and I really like Asdrubal.
2. 16 runs in two games. Today they didn't rely on the longball.
2.5. Doug Davis is likely Zona's #3 this season, we hit him hard.
3. Matt LaPorta likes to swing the bat. And is being compared to Ryan Braun
Three Down
1. Matt LaPorta likes to swing the bat. And I'm not buying comparisons to Ryan Braun at all, other than being an average fielder (read it's a good thing he wasn't a 3rd Basemen).
2. The guy playing first base, Jordan Brown, had two throwing errors. I think I'll get to see him play here for at least the first part of the season. I can accept 1 throwing error from a 1B, but 2 is kind of ridiculous.
3. A couple really bad innings by relief pitchers again. Ohka had to deal with a couple errors, but Cassel just didn't have much stuff today. Belichick must have gotten to him.

Ishikawa Udpdate- Went 1-2 with a run. I thought about his numbers a bit and 16-20 HR is not that great from a Fantasy 1B (3 in 33 games). I'm still on the bandwagon, but I'm not going to pass up Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman or even Caros Delgado for him.

Babbling About Spring Training

2009-02-26T13:21:00.000-05:00

I didn't really get to watch much of the game today, as there were more important things on such as Chelsea/Juventus. However what I did see was 10-7 score, that saw the Indians on the short side of the result. You can't base much off spring training, and you certainly can't base anything off one game but here are Three Ups and Three Down for today's game. I'll try to continue to edit my note each game. (until I start my blog, because this is going to get really long)

Wednesday Feb. 25, 2009 L 10-7 vs SF
Three Up
.5. The entire Goodyear, Arizona facility looks great.
1. The bats looked pretty good for an early game, though it may have been the pitching just was bad hence the bats looked good.
2. DeRosa is not a power bat, but if he hits 15-20 into Souvenir City, like he did last year, it will be huge. He started off the spring well. This is important for fans who are not on his train seeing as how he is going to be leaving or the WBC.
3. If Matt Herges' line looks half as good as today's was (1IP 0H 0R 2K) at the end of spring training, I think he should be on the Major League roster. Teams bring guys in on minor league contracts hoping to find a roleplayer that can help them, and it never hurts to have reliable bullpen arms. This guy is only two years removed from going 5-1 with a 2.96 ERA. He is also only 4 years removed from going 1-1 with a 7.14 ERA
Three Down
1. I've never liked Edward Mujica, an not only because of this, yet the Indians keep thinking he is going to be good. He stunk today as he did last year and the year before. Though not as much as Vinnie Chulk. Ditto what I wrote about Herges except for the part about making the roster.
2. I would have liked to see the new lean-mean-not-hitting-anymore-machine, Travis Hafner, get an at-bat.
3. LaPorta should not have had the green light on the last swing of the game. Down three two men on, two outs, the last two pitchers have combined for two hit batsman and 3 balls on their last five pitches, make the them throw a strike. I don't know who was due up because the box score is impossible to read when 19 guys bat. But it appears the guy would have been S Head (unfortunate to not have a first name in the box score with that initial and last name. This S Head hit a home run already why not have him come up with the bases juiced. I'm getting the feeling already that LaPorta is afraid of becoming the next Andy Marte, yes that was on purpose.
FANTASY PLAYER TO WATCH:
This Travis Ishikawa fellow hit two home runs, I've never heard of him but in 33 games .277 3HR and 19 RBI. Possible sleeper pick, then again maybe not. However I must say when Ryan Braun had that ridiculous spring in 2007, I was all over him and everyone told me it's just spring training. 71 HRs, 203 RBI and an NL Rookie of the Year later, your crazy if you don't draft him in the top 20. Mark my words now... I'm jumping on the Ishikawa fantasy bandwagon.

You Got Tagged!

2009-02-26T13:20:00.001-05:00

You got tagged!
An exploratory divulgence into one of sports least discussed topics.

See what I did there? I made a common Facebook update/notification into something that has nothing to do with Facebook (other than this part). In doing so I may have succeeded in luring you to read it because I may have just declared 20 random things, or picked the first line of 25 random songs on my iPod, or maybe even answered 100 questioned. Well I didn't!

Eventually I am going to go start a Sports Blog, but until then I'm going to let you know my opinions here. Maybe not so much opinions as ideas. For example, I've always wanted to own a minor-league sports franchise. That is not an opinion but an idea. An opinion would be something to the extent of... The Indians may have made the playoffs in 2008 if they had been able to put a Franchise Tag on C.C. Sabathia.

While that is an opinion, a Franchise Tag in baseball is an idea, an idea that will never happen, nor would the players union allow it, but that does not stop my poor comma usage and me from writing about it anyway. BTW, the previous sentence as written means that comma usage is able to write op ed and/or idea ed.

To set the scene a bit let me dim the lights, open up a bottle of this stuff (yes I typed high-end champagnes into Google for that, I'm not quite Dennis Miller yet) and explain that in the NFL there are two types of franchise tags "exclusive" and "non-exclusive" The basic difference is that an "exclusive" tag means the player "must be offered a one-year contract for an amount no less than the average of the top five salaries at the player's position as of a date in April of the current year in which the tag will apply, or 120 percent of the player's previous year's salary, whichever is greater," (they also may not negotiate with other teams). In the "non-exclusive" version the "player must be offered a one-year contract for an amount no less than the average of the top five salaries at the player's position in the previous year, or 120 percent of the player's previous year's salary, whichever is greater. A non-exclusive franchise player may negotiate with other NFL teams, but if he signs an offer sheet from another team, the original team has a right to match the terms of that offer, or if it does not match the offer and thus loses the player, is entitled to receive two first-round draft picks as compensation."

So now that you've been educated, onto the stuff I didn't plagiarize from Wikipedia. I'm going to tell you that for sake of argument and math we are going to only use the non-exclusive tag and get rid of the 120% rule. Basically in 2008 there were only about 20 total guys that would actually lose money if they were franchised tagged and did not use the 120% rules, and 9 of them played for a team in New York (Giambi, Beltran, Posada, Pudge, Delgado, Jeter, A-Rod, Santana, Pettite) So I don't care.

Also for sake of argument... OF is one position, not to be broken down into center, left, right and Delucci/Michaels. RP is one position, not to be broken down into closers, 7th inning specialists and long-relievers. My apologies to all of the Joe Inglett and Alex Cora fans, but if you are considered a utility player, no team is going to give you a franchise tag, so don't worry about them. DH's do not count in this column.

The fact that there is no salary cap in baseball makes the franchise tag thing kind of tough. Certain position averages are way out of whack due to players with contracts significantly higher than anyone else at the same position.

Also, some might argue that arbitration is, in a way, a direct opposite of a franchise tag. That's a different story, that someone else can comment on as I know everyone will be reading this.

Just like in football certain positions cost more money than others. In 2009 it will cost the Patriots $14.65 million to franchise the sexiest back-up quarterback in the league, Matt Cassell, however it will cost the Chargers $6.62 to franchise running-back, Darren Sproles, luckily they don't have to do this every time LT hurts his toe. The average 2008 salary of the 5 highest paid catchers in the Major Leagues (Posada, Rodriguez, Varitek, Hernandez and Johjima) was about $10 million.The average 2008 salary of the 5 highest paid third basemen in the Major Leagues (A-Rod, Aramis Ramirez, Beltre, Lowell and Glaus) was about $16.6 million, $1.6 million higher than any player at that position not named A-Rod. In other words, thanks to the Yankees nobody is ever going to franchise tag a player at the hot corner.

In many areas the franchise tag could work in baseball. It could keep teams from trading players mid-season. It might also just postpone these trades til the next season, but say the Indians could have put a franchise tag on CC Sabathia last year. I know what your thinking, finally he gets to the point he made in the first paragraph. CC went 11-2 with the Brewers but probably didn't get to ride this very much. The Indians knew they were not going to be able to re-sign him in the offseason, so they traded him. The Tribe only finished 7.5 games back in the AL Central. If a system like this were in place based on last year's salaries, the Indians could have placed a franchise tag on CC and paid him about $16 million to stay an extra year, that is $7 million a year less than his current contract and only $5 million more than he was already making. I don't know that CC's 11-2 would have gotten them in, but it's possible. Not to mention they would begin 2009 with him.

Without getting into the argument that on Opening Day there are 5 times as many guys who will be starting pitchers as there are starting NFL QBs. CC fairly justifies my idea. The Indians might have said, "we really like LaPorta and don't want to pay 16 million next year," and still traded him, but it gives the small market teams a chance to keep players.

Of course the player's union would go berserk over this. Say the Braves franchise tagged Mark Teixiera, who made $12.5 million in 2008, they would have paid him $15.29 million the next year. He pulls a hammy in spring training the next season and doesn't return to form, in 2010 he turns 30 and signs a 5 year deal worth $70 million. He misses out on the contract he just signed with New York and essentially loses $100 million and is a free agent at 35 instead of 37.

Here is where the NFL idea of a player being able to negotiate comes in (though still not sure the MLBPA would go for it). So the Braves put their franchise tag on Teixiera and he wants to hold out for a lucrative contract. The Yankees offer him a 7 year $160 million dollar deal. Atlanta can match the offer or they can let New York have him. Unlike in the NFL where a 1st round draft pick immediately can help a team, it takes years for draft picks to pan out in baseball, so what is the benefit for Atlanta? It kind of works like a trade, though I can't honestly say I know what the equivalent of the 33rd pick in the NFL Draft is compared to baseball. Atlanta would get to pick one of the 13 players on New York's 40 man roster but not the 27 man roster, or something to that extent. Maybe New York can designate 10 guys no lower than Triple A from whom Atlanta can select.

Thank you for 10 great years ... You’ve touched our lives with your kindness, love and generosity. We are forever grateful! It’s been a privilege and an honor! I don't know about you but to me those are the words of a man who would have been happy to see a $5 million increase for one year and stay in the town that he had been with his entire career.