NBA Referees Are A Joke

So, Wade goes up to block a shot, and gets a Flagrant Foul 1 call, but Rondo smacks a guy across the face, and it's just a hard foul.

What The Fuck...

Way to be consistent. You are A JOKE.

Gratz.

Stevie Wonder could've seen that shit.

♦Digg it   ♦del.icio.us   ♦Technorati   ♦StumbleUpon   ♦Google   ♦Yahoo   ♦reddit

Chicago Cubs Opening Day

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

OK, it's been a LONG offseason. We lost the great writings of Cub Town and all of the Baseball Toaster. The Cubs lost the playoff series with the Dodgers in less than impressive fashion. And we still seem to have Alfonso Soriano leading off (OK, at least he went 3-4 yesterday with AB's vs. Pettitte and Burnett).

But, this is the day we put our losses behind us. This is the day we say This Is The Year. This is the day we start our long journey toward a goal not seen since 1945 and not won since 1908. this is the day, we saddle up that steed once again, and charge right at that World Series ring. This is the day, we sit and watch our Beloved Cubbies with hearts and arms open, hopes abound with joy, and smile while Big Z gets the big win and goes 2 for 4, and Derrek Lee hits one on Waveland.

Ah, this is the life. Cub Fans days have very few of these precious moments to cherish. So, grab your favorite beverage, grab your comfiest chair (or get to Wrigley if you are a lucky one!) and let's watch the beauty that is the Chicago Cub Franchise. Today, at 6:05pm CDT we watch the first pitch breeze in there for a strike, and cheer with glee. Today we stand arm and arm and sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame together. We hold our heads up high and see that unattainable dream within our grasp. Today, we beat Roy Oswalt and the Houston Astros and we high five and talk about where we were when it all began.

For one single solitary day, we, the Chicago Cubs, are the greatest team in the Universe.

"Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find "tomorrow" on the calendar of fools. Forget yesterday's defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it... Make it the best day of your year." - Og Mandino

♦Digg it   ♦del.icio.us   ♦Technorati   ♦StumbleUpon   ♦Google   ♦Yahoo   ♦reddit

Astros offseason moves bold and glamorous

Retired? Not yet, bored with this years off season? Fuck Yeah! The Astros continued their whirlwind off season acquisitions yesterday with the signing of Matt Kata, a 30 year old minor league player who they hope can compete for a spot to back up Miguel Tejada.

I'm gonna kick back and let that sink in for awhile.

The Kata signing comes on the heels of Mike Hamptons return, Hampton who once finished second in the Cy Young voting while in a Houston Uniform comes home leading the "audacity of hope" mantra that the nearly flawless starting rotation will no doubt adopt as the season gets underway in 120 days.

I cant tell you how awesome it is to be an Astros fan currently, other than the two blockbusters i just mentioned, the biggest story of the off season is how the club will deal with economic woes.

That's what i want to hear about, the economy. God knows when i go to the local sports page in the morning i want to get the latest update on what my favorite baseball team WONT be doing due to the infringing economic crisis. I don't hear people talking enough about the economic crisis anyway, please molest my precious baseball rumors with fiscal doubt and uncertainty.

Well i have been a negative nelly long enough today, i hope everyone Else's off season is going well and that there are those who don't have starting rotation worries(cough cubs cough).

Merry Christmas you pitching rich bastards!!

♦Digg it   ♦del.icio.us   ♦Technorati   ♦StumbleUpon   ♦Google   ♦Yahoo   ♦reddit

Why The Cubs Won't Win The World Series

The biggest reason? Alfonso Soriano.

Easy as that. Yeah, yeah, I know. Try and talk to me about it. Homeruns, woooo, shiny. No OBP, no team chemistry, no glove, no baseball mind, no baseball heart. OK, he's got a decent arm. Great. And he's plugging up the leadoff spot because he's a spoiled freakin' brat. And, the worst part is, the Cubs deserve it. Because they've let it happen.

The contract they signed him to was stupid. It was stupid then, and it goes all the way up to REALLY F'n STUPID in the coming years. Not only is he a major reason this season will be the best of his tenure on the Northside, the back end of the deal is so large, no one will ever take him off the Cubs hands. EVER. And it will prevent them from signing an outfielder that's, well, better than just above average.

Seriously. If you thought $13 million was a little high (little?!) for nearly the worst OBP of the starters (Edmonds was one one hundredth of a point behind, and he's a platoon player) and #2 on the team behind Soto for K/AB, just wait until next year when he costs $16 million. Hey, at least it only gets a whole lot worse when he gets $18 mil per year for the next four consecutive years after that. Do you think he's worthy of the equal money of Carlos Zambrano? That's what I thought. Oh, and he has that silly-ass hop out there. Fun times.

The baseball world (wrongly) hears about Alex Rodriguez's numbers in the postseason and how they aren't good. Well, would you rather have A-Rod's .279/.373/.483 with 9 doubles and 7 HR's or A-Sore's .213/.263/.299 with more K's (53) than Total Bases (52)?!

OK, how can this be fixed? Get rid of him. Well, that won't happen, so make him bat fifth. No questions, no bitching, no other way. You bat fifth. Period. Can the Cubs ever realize how important Leadoff is?? Ya know, for RBI's for the big bats? Maybe then he wouldn't only have 75 RBI to show for his 29 HR's. But, then again, he looks alright against the Pirates of the world, but once he goes against smart managers that know not to pitch Soriano any strikes, he gets himself out. And, if the guy won't do what's best for the team (which we know he won't), has no plate discipline, and you can't get rid of him, what do you do?

Lose. That, and only score twelve runs in the last six playoff games, all losses. Sweet. Don't forget to get your Commemorative T-Shirt on your way out!

Oh, and great job signing Fukudome and having seven digits of salary sitting on the bench as well. Hey, guess what, next year it nearly doubles!! WooHoo!!

Seriously, if the team played without Soriano or Fukudome, they wouldn't miss them a bit. That's two outfield positions, with a weak CF for every year since, ever?, that are gone baby gone... Please, get rid of one of them. Yeah right. Neither can go. They're tied into their contracts. And therein lies the problem. We Cub Fans are tied into several more years of Losing. Fantastic. Well, at least we won't get this close for a while, so maybe it won't hurt as much...

Congrats on a good season, Cubbies. Hope that's all you wanted. The Central crown again. Cause that's as good as it's going to get.

Yay! Maybe next century will be our century. Go Cubs in 2100!! Bloody Hell.

♦Digg it   ♦del.icio.us   ♦Technorati   ♦StumbleUpon   ♦Google   ♦Yahoo   ♦reddit

Different Dog Same Fleas

Today the Sox decided to get more power in the lineup. They acquired Griffey Jr. from the Reds for next to nothing, Massett – who was just about to get sent down to the minors and Richar, who no longer had a spot to come up. With Cabrera at SS this year our 1st round draft pick on Beckham from UGA, Ramirez at 2nd with the over priced Uribe as a backup. Richar was the odd man out.
I question what Kenny is doing to get a declining player such as Jr. which the Sox are only paying for $2.4M of his salary this year. We are fine in the OF with All Star Quentin LF, MVP Dye in RF, and Mr. Lunchbox Swisher in Center.
If they plan to platoon Konerko at 1st with Swisher you loose defense in both spots. Jr. no longer can track down balls, like he used to.
How often do you really need to rest a DH, since it gets tiring only participating in half the game? Yes I understand that it is tough to stay mentally when you don’t play the field since I was a DH myself back in the day. But you should be able to go out and hit.
Maybe they are thinking that Jr. can play first. I know it sounds weird, and Jr. might not have played 1B since Tee ball or Babe Ruth. But it might be worth it. Have him invest a new round glove and put him at first.
This sure does seem like it fits on the team. This team sure is getting old and it is turning back to the South Side Hitmen, Bashing Balls, roll out the keg for Softball league. Or just prior to they won the World Series, with el Caballo Lee in RF, Ordonez in RF, Konerko at 1B, Big Hurt DH.
The Sox have proven that this doesn’t work. I believe that they should go back to fundamentals and play small ball, manufacturing runs. Chics may dig the long ball but I believe real baseball fans would rather see runs truly produced.

♦Digg it   ♦del.icio.us   ♦Technorati   ♦StumbleUpon   ♦Google   ♦Yahoo   ♦reddit

USA...USA...USA

As 8/8/08 comes closer for the start of the summer Olympics, do people really care about the Olympics for the main stream events? I enjoy the watching the games that I don’t get to see much of or get over hyped, such as your Track and Field, swimming, wrestling, weight lifting, and other. However I really don’t give a rats butt on watching some of the main stream events. Here is a list of games that I feel that the USA fan really won’t watch.

Basketball – This is like watching the summer basketball for the rookies. Sure there is a lot of talent there but do you really care if you missed watching it
Soccer – The EURO and World Cup are the bigger venues then the Olympics
Boxing – All too often this is just a glorified Golden Gloves. If people want to watch fighting they should watch MMA or bring cage fighting to the Olympics.
Baseball – This is right in the middle of the MLB season. There are so many international players that are in MLB that are not going so that should tell you how important the players even think it is.

People should tune into the Olympics. However, I for one will want to follow the smaller sports and look for that underdog that we can grasp on to and truly lift up as a champion.

♦Digg it   ♦del.icio.us   ♦Technorati   ♦StumbleUpon   ♦Google   ♦Yahoo   ♦reddit

Bears Show Urlacher The Money

Finally.

Brian Urlacher got what he was looking for: Contract Restructuring. He gets six million off the bat in "signing bonus" and a one million boost each year over the next four years. Good. The inept Chicago Bears Front Office finally did something smart, and assured the best player on their squad stays happy and keeps crushing guys on the other side of the ball. Unfortunately, their offense still sucks.

But, let's focus on the positives for a moment. No more singing for the man, no more, "sure, we'll get to it"/"check is in the mail" crap. They paid him what he's worth, and he'll go out there and play like he always does. It's just a bonus that it'll be in a Bears uniform.

And enough stupid stories about him having to go earn it. He's done that ever since he's first stepped on Soldier Field. So, if you read this story, remember to send some hate mail in about how stupid Haugh is. Thanks. Actually, don't even read it. What's the use.

However, there's a hilarious idea of trading Urlacher for Favre from Mike "I was bored today, so I wrote a column" Downey. Yeah. Brilliant. Let's see, what comes to mind exactly... oh yeah... STFU. Compared to Downey, Haugh is a genius. Mike Downey is the only guy I can think of that would make W the smartest man in the room.

♦Digg it   ♦del.icio.us   ♦Technorati   ♦StumbleUpon   ♦Google   ♦Yahoo   ♦reddit

Brewers Acquire Ray Durham

The Milwaukee Brewers just made a move to up their offense (even while they're beating on TimLin 5-0) and traded for veteran second baseman Ray Durham. They gave up two Minor Leaguers, outfielder Darren Ford, and pitcher Steve Hammond.

Gotta give it to the Brew Crew Management, they're giving it all they have for the one year shot at the prize. Seems weird to count out Rickie Weeks, but perhaps the .218 BA has something to do with it. Ya think?

Well, I don't think the Cubs are going to make anymore big moves, but an addition to the bullpen is still possible.

In the meantime, let's get the right-handed swingers ready for Mr. Randy Johnson.

Go Cubs!!

♦Digg it   ♦del.icio.us   ♦Technorati   ♦StumbleUpon   ♦Google   ♦Yahoo   ♦reddit

Cubs Lost Offense Found in Baggage Claim

Well, after two nights of No Offense Whatsoever, the guys got off their asses and supported a fantastic outing from Ryan Dempster to wipe out the Astros on getaway day to the tune of 9-0. The Cardinals are down 3-2 as I type and are looking at bases loaded of Padres with two out in the top of the eighth. On a side note, man, where'd they get these tools who broadcast Padres games? Actually, I don't want to know.

Eight strong (well, seven, the loading the bases thing and all) innings from Demp, followed up by a 1-2-3 ninth from Marmol, is exactly what the Cubs needed. Nice to see only one walk from Ryan, not until the eighth, along with the seven K's. Add that with the bats actually showing up today, and the ship's once again pointed in the right direction.

Theriot continues his hit streak, now at 12, with a multi-hit, multi-RBI game. Fontenot had a awesome day as well, with a single, double and homer. Hell, even Fukudome decided to get involved with a couple of hits. Edmonds and Lee too. Let's keep this train rolling along with Harden against the Unit tomorrow night.

Ahhh... No tranq's needed tonight. Let's hope the Giants can help the Cubs out with a W as well tonight, although the Brew Crew already but two on the board in the 2nd off of TimLin.

I'm getting another glass of Iced Tea, puttin' the feet up, and enjoying the rest of the Baseball packed day.

Go Cubs!!!

♦Digg it   ♦del.icio.us   ♦Technorati   ♦StumbleUpon   ♦Google   ♦Yahoo   ♦reddit