Opening Day

Unlike my partner Chem, today has been the best day in a while for me because of Opening Day for baseball. America's sport is back and there's already been some good games today. That being said, I feel like I learned everything I needed to know about the team I picked to win the NL Central. The Brewers are good just like I thought, but the iffy part of their team is definitely late inning pitching, and today was no different. Play a great game and Axford blows it with a 3 run homer in the 9th. I'm not going back on my prediction, but it's going to be a struggle for the Brew Crew if they can't close out games.

In the NL East, the Braves came out strong today. Reminded me exactly of the Braves from last year: get a few runs, and let your pitching do the job. Everyone is absolutely sweating the Phillies starters, but when I look at the Braves, they're pretty damn good also. Derek Lowe is an ageless wonder, and the forgotten monster piece of the 2004 World Series Champion Red Sox. Guy's just purely a winner. Did everyone forget about Tim Hudson? He is the opposite of Heidi Montag: came out way better after surgery. The list goes on. Besides Clayton Kershaw, Tommy Hanson is the best young starter in the NL. If the Braves get any production at all out of Jair Jurjjens, which I believe they will, they are an unstoppable force. But the difference between the fightin Phils and the Braves comes with the lineup.

The Braves are rock solid top to bottom. Subtract Omar Infante and add Dan Uggla. I say you come out on top of that one. Jason Heyward is everything you could wish for as an organization; I would build my team around that kid. Martin Prado is coming off a career year, and will have another big one. And the factor everyone forgets about.... Chipper Jones. Is it just me or is the most publicity Chipper has ever gotten been for the time he cheated on his wife with a Hooters waitress? Chip is a career .306 switch hitter in his 18th MLB season, and has hit 436 home runs. If he played for any other organization, people would be gargling him the same way they do Derek Jeter, who's only .08 career average points ahead of him. Chipper comes to work every day, puts on his hard hat, and gets the job done.

When going position for position, the Braves are better than the Phillies at almost every single spot. Yes Ryan Howard hits for a ton of power, but his batting average has been consistently dropping each year. You can't tell me he has as much incentive this year as he did last when he set the standard for the Pujols deal. Utley may never be healthy again, and I have absolutely no idea what to expect from Jimmy Rollins. I will legitimately take Chipper Jones over Placido Polanco 365 out of 365 days a year. The Braves play good ball and are gonna surprise the hell out of Halladay, Oswalt, and Lee. Oh yeah I forgot about Jim Carey, oh wait that's Cole Hamels. Maybe if he finds the mask he'll have a chance to pitch like he did two years ago in the World Series.

Here's a little reminder of what's coming from the future NL East champs. Might have to get back on that 14 year division title run again.

P.S.- Will Ted Turner please buy the Braves back so America can watch every game on TBS instead of by default having to watch the awful Cubs on WGN???

The Great Debate

Should college athletes get paid? After watching Real Sports tonight with my used to be man Bryant Gumble, I have put an exclamation point on my NO when it comes to college athletes getting paid. Why?

First off, all SEC football players and every big conference basketball players get paid enough under the table anyway. Secondly, there would be absolutely zero parity in sports. The teams that win and have the highest profit margin in sports would be able to pay the most, leaving the smaller teams literally hung out to dry. The only plausible way to make it work fairly would be to have profit sharing amongst every division 1 team in America in each sport, then divvy up that evenly amongst all players. Wow. That would be awful. No chance.

College athletes that are on full scholarship get a free education, free food, clothes if needed, travel if needed for holidays, books (which they sell back for cash), per diem on the road (which football players pocket because all team meals are paid for), and free housing. Most players end up with money in their pockets for food and housing. This is getting to be a joke.

College basketball is the worst. Are we really contemplating paying kids that go to college for one year, never step foot in a classroom, and leave to get paid the next year?

I'm sick of all the bs of the stories of people who never made it but come back and bitch. So now in retrospect you want to be paid when you're out on the street without a job, but during that time your education was paid for that would land you a job now you never thought about those consequences did you? Here's a plan: go to school, get your degree, so if sports don't workout for you you can actually get a job.

To add on, yeah the NCAA makes money; yes each college makes a ton of money off of sports, but most of that money goes back to the university or college to make that a better place for the students and prospective students who pay for your "education".

It's about time some of this responsibility comes down on coaches. Take Auburn for example: Do you think those coaches preach going to class every day? Is that why they have a 47 % graduation rate? Now take for example a BC, Northwestern, Stanford, Duke: above 95% graduation rate and they still compete. I don't care what type of kid you are, or what your background was, when you go to college to play a sport you know what you signed up for and that's to be a "STUDENT ATHLETE", and the coaches are supposed to preach that. Obviously that doesn't happen so they need to take some of that responsibility. You hear that John Calipari? You hear that Les Miles and Nick Saban? The NCAA should set a rule of loss of scholarships if graduation rate slips under a certain percent. Maybe that will force these coaches to actually do their jobs.

Barry Bonds and Bud Selig

So just when everyone was getting close to forgetting about the steroid era, or the greatest era in baseball, the Barry Bonds case has to be plastered all over every media outlet in the United States. This case is sort of unfair. Normally, a jury is sequestered so that they don't know information about a case. So this means that for the Bonds case it is already unfair because the jury knows, or thinks they know, everything about the case and have been flooded with information for the past 5 years. Fair and just trial? I think not. This case just brings me back to Bud Selig, and how he can sneak around with no blame for such a long time and now retire just in time to never be blamed for his huge hand in this era.

So after the 1994-1995 lockout in the MLB, America's past time had taken a huge hit in ratings, and was struggling from a marketing and revenue standpoint. Bring in Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Arguably the most exciting season in baseball in the past 20 years because of the home run chase and Marist's record being broken. Baseball had its flare back, and everyone in America was intrigued. More than half of the league was juicing, and Bud Selig and the MLB front offices knew everything about it. If you were Bud Selig would you start drug testing when you're sport was on top of the world? I sure wouldn't and he didn't. That's fine, but when the issue hit the media, Selig found a way to sneak out like he had no idea and turn everyone else into the bad guy. He watched this go on and let it go on, and when it hit the fan, he jumped ship to the other side. Selig is the one to blame, yet he threw the blame in every direction but his own.

Now he'll retire and every one will forget what a huge hand he had, yet I don't see him sitting in front of Congress and having a Grand Jury grilling him on the events that happened. Instead they are taking it out on the players who made Selig all the money; he might as well have just put the needle in himself. I wouldn't be surprised if the guy gets in the HOF, when all the players during his era will never have a chance to get in. Think about a principal of a school letting his entire school cheat to get higher scores on standardized tests, and the kids all being punished while the principal is getting a promotion and being praised for his job. Pretty much the same situation.

It's about time that the blame is taken away from all the players and put right where it belongs: on Bud Selig and the MLB front office. Let the players who sacrifice every day and put their bodies on the line off the hook; put the blame on the administration that did nothing to stop or help the problem that was small, but they let grow into one of the largest sports stories of the last decade.

Genius

So this is a two part post about geniuses. First off, I am a genius for picking Florida to win it all. Here's to all the haters who laughed at my pick. Florida can play. Parsons is a game-changer, and Tyrus is a freak athlete. They have great guard play with a really strong front line. Look for Florida to cut the nets down in Houston.

Secondly, Brad Stevens is a basketball genius. I'm sorry, but I'd take Stevens over Roy Williams, Bill Self, Jim Boehiem, or anyone else (excluding coach K). The guy knows how to win without talent. It's amazing where he has taken Butler the last two years, especially this year. This is what I think will happen: Stevens will stay at Butler as long as he pleases, and when Coach K retires, he gets the job at Duke and continues the Duke domination. Call me crazy, but if Coach K ever decided to leave for the Lakers, which I don't think is going to happen, Stevens will be at Cameron Indoor.

west coast bias?

Home field advantage?

All week all I keep hearing from my friends on the east coast that it isn’t fair that Arizona gets to play so close to home and friends on the west coast who know nothing about basketball but hear this now are saying “watch out for Arizona because they have home field advantage”. : I disagree that Anaheim offers some huge Zona edge. People out East never have any concept of how far apart things are out West. Chris Sprow says it best "Ever tell a friend you'll be in San Fran some weekend and hear them say, "I'll be in L.A. -- we should meet up!" When, after a 10-hour drive? The lesson: Saying Anaheim is a home game for Zona is like saying Madison Square Garden is a home game for Virginia Tech. Literally. Check the miles.)

A New Number One

I hope I'm not going to lose any followers over this post, but the sad truth is that tennis is the sport I played in college, and a sport that I know a lot about. That being said, I've been amazed watching tennis the past few months watching the torch being passed again. I figured it would consistently be Nadal winning with Federer still hanging around, and a possible Murray/Djokovic win. Wrong.

 Nobody is even close to playing the way Novak Djokovic is playing right now. He is routining Nadal and Federer, and making everyone else look just stupid. I have never seen Nadal beat at his own game, but Djokovic just did it on Sunday at Indian Wells. I'm expecting pure domination for the rest of the year from Djokovic if he stays healthy. The guy was a bit of a head case in the past, but what people forget is that he only 23 years old. He is the best athlete on tour, and is using his quickness and athletic ability, and finally a serve, to just crush all opposition. Nadal may have an advantage at the French, but I still look for Djokovic to finish number one in the world at the end of the year, and a few years to come.

Oh and by the way, anyone who doesn't tennis players are athletes, just watch this guy play and get back to me. I agree in the past they weren't, but with Djoker, Nadal, and Federer/Murray now, these guys can move and are great athletes. 

Ok enough tennis for the year, we'll get back to real sports later. 

Baseball and Sweet 16 has me yawning

Let me just say I am not excited for baseball and the Sweet 16

Baseball Starts next week and I am not excited, and I am the kind of fan who is always excited for baseball. I will watch any baseball game.. even a Royals game for the sole purpose of watching just to be able to say that I have now seen Willie Bloomquist play for his 15^th team. Then I can compare how bad he sucks with the Royals to how bad he sucked with the Mariners and every other team he played for. But somehow while watching I know one day he will replace Jamey Caroll as the Dodgers utility man. But this year I am just not that excited. First off opening day is on a Thursday? It’s always a Monday and correct me if I am wrong but I have a feeling they were all set to put it Monday April 4th until they realized that’s the national championship game and they don’t want to go up against it like they did in previous years and get no ratings. Also this year there is simply no story lines that get me excited, steroid chapter is over and we now have Jose Bautista as the defending home run champion. Whose happy now? Bring back steroids! But seriously what is the big storyline heading into this year? I am open to suggestions so email me achemerinsky@gmail.com if you can think of a storyline. Prince Fielder trying to eat his teamates since the Brewers can't feed him this season because they spent all their money on Greinke who secretly plays pickup basketball and now can't pitch even though everyone thought he never left his house doesn't count as a big story in L.A.

I am also not excited for any of these sweet 16 matchups. Are there any games Thursday or Friday you have circled as can’t miss games? Just give me the elite 8 and let me watch Duke try to defend Kemba, Kansas sleepwalk to the final 4 and Bo Ryan finally letting everyone realize what a great program Wisconsins been for the past 10 years. My final 4 predictions are.. Duke, Kansas,Wisconsin,Ohio St.

Missing your fantasy draft...

Is there anything worse in the entire world than missing your fantasy draft? I am legitimately furious. While I'm in the process of losing my phone amongst the largest assembled crowd of Massholes in the entire state of Massachusetts (The Southie Parade obviously), my league is drafting MLB fantasy for this year. Just such a heartbreaker.

Although I end up with Albert Pujols, does it really matter when my third basemen is Mark Reynolds, who will strike out 250 times this year? Or when my best starting pitcher is Shaun Marcum? Wow. I know a lot about baseball but I have pitchers I've never heard of. Just one of those things that really hurts. Nothing hurts more than having zero Red Sox on my team, when normally I strictly draft Red Sox and Braves. Worse than that is having a Yankees' player on my team. Not just any Yankees player, Derek Jeter: gut wrenching. I'm not one of those fantasy guys who drafts best available players in order to win the league, I draft guys I like on my teams so that I never have the awkward situation of ever hoping Derek Jeter gets a hit. I'm going to keep him on my team and hope he goes 0/8 million this year.

Here's to hoping people will actually trade, and hoping that I'm still interested after April 1st...

First weekend Reaction

In the past years of this tournament there have been many great “heroes”. Think Bryce Drew, Ali Farokhmanesh and Bo Kimble. However this weekend will be remembered more for players who lost games for their teams then for players who won games with March heroics. This weekend alone I saw Texas lose a game on a 5 second call, Syracuse on a backcourt violation and Pitt on a missed ft followed by a bonehead foul. I have a feeling you’re going to see more of these stupid plays in the future as coaches recruit illiterate players who will never graduate.

Things I realized this weekend:

There is now a dove curse: You think any coach will be in a dove commercial next year? John Thompson. Spent too long filming the dove commercial he forgot to prepare for VCU.

Rick Pitino hints in his press conference he’s been coaching too long then is in the studio the next day. I know you will hear having his face on T.V is good for recruiting but you know what’s better for recruiting? Winning a game in the tournament instead of being the highest seeded team to lose. Watch out Rick, Shaka is ready to cash in and take your job.

Last thought: Bud Light has a “march to the championship game” campaign. Last time I checked the Championship game is in April.

NCAA tournament so far

So I guess the Gonzaga of old prevails, and everything else is thrown out the window. The first time in about 10 years Gonzaga isn't favored in the tourney, they win. Should've known but that's my fault. Michigan State, I knew you had a down year but I never thought to bet against you in the tournament. I guess this year is legitimately March Madness. Unlike any year in the past, I am surprised by nothing. Let's hope the rest of the tournament stays this exciting. At this point, anyone can win so my Florida/Texas final doesn't look that bad.

Does this bring up a point that the Big East may be overrated? hmm. Something to think about. We'll see as the tournament goes on. They do beat up on each other every day, and their top 5 are waaayyy better than anyone elses top 5, but after that are the other teams just a benefactor of a weakened opponent? We'll see in the future rounds.

March Madness... No kidding

How is it possible that I lose my bracket in the 3rd game of the tournament? Morehead State. Thats how. Like are you kidding me? I don't even know what to say right now. That's just pathetic. I always trust Rick Pitino. Maybe I should think more like his wife and never trust him again.

BC NIT Home game

Just to let everyone know BC is playing at Conte Forum against Northwestern Saturday morning at 11 am. Admission is $15 for adults, but free for students with a BC id. So lets try to get a crowd and watch a bunch of smart kids play ball. Won't have to drink more than a beer to pregame, just run off the fumes from Friday night

NIT Last night

Ok so I was just completely baffled last night watching the NIT.

BC is a #1 seed in the NOT IN TOURNAMENT tournament and played a road game at McNeese State. Let me say that again played a road game at McNeese State. Are you kidding me? They reiterated the fact that the hockey team had the ice but anyone who believes that is a fool. DeFillipo and probably ESPN knew that BC wouldn't draw flies for an NIT game considering we can't draw a crowd for ACC home games. Listen I understand I would give priority to hockey too considering we are dominating women's and men's hockey this year like we always do. Yes, hockey is BC's best sport right now. But this just highlights the biggest problem at BC for sports.

First off, we're never going to get the best recruits. We know that, but don't you think it would help if a kid came for a recruiting trip to a basketball game and saw a crowd in the stands? You're playing for a perennial top 6 ACC team and play in front of 3,000 people at the most. What is the problem with these BC students? You pay $58 k a year to go to a school and you don't even think to support the athletic programs that bring a ton of money into the school? What better do you have to do on a Tuesday night than get to go watch Reggie Jackson dominate a basketball game? I remember 5 years ago we had to get to games an hour early to get close to a seat. Now you can walk in ten minutes in and get any seat you want in the place.

It's not just basketball its everything. Watching football games this year with empty seats. Are you kidding me? I don't understand it. Get your asses out of your dorm rooms and get to games. I'm sure all of you have plenty of money to buy tickets so that's not the issue. It's pure laziness and a lack of self-pride in your school. I've never witnessed a more fair weather student body in my entire life. Sure when we were number 2 in the country in football it was crazy, but the second we lost people lost interest in it. This is your school that you will get a job because of. Have some pride and show up for games. It's getting to be a joke.

A couple more rules

Adding on to what the genius Chem had to say about filling out your brackets, I wanted to add one point...

DON'T SECOND GUESS YOURSELF.

Every single time I second guess myself and change a pick, I was right the first time. When picking the 5/12, 6/11, 7/10 games, don't even look at the seeds. Pick purely who you like more in the matchup. Don't try to find upsets. And please don't listen to Jay Bilas, Hubert Davis, and especially Digger Phelps. That spells disaster.

Rules to live by when filling out your bracket:

First only fill out one bracket, why watch a game and be thinking if UCONN wins it helps me here but if they lose it would help me here. By the time you thought over every scenario on what needs to happen for you to win pool A but not be out of pool B so you can win 40 dollars, Kemba just hit a game winner and you didn’t get to experience an instant classic.

The more you know a curse?: Around 15 percent of people who win their office pool haven’t watched a single game, probably a good thing. Does it help me that I can tell you Orlando Johnson is UCSB’s leading scorer or that Villinova is in a total spiral. Probably not, It is called madness for a reason.

This isn’t your daddy’s bracket: growing up every boy knows How to throw a football, where to hide his porn , a 12 always upsets a 5 and that all four number one seeds don’t make the final 4. Toss out the rules this tournament, Clemson is the most capable 12 seed but they're racking up more frequent flier miles then Scully on his “ I did my job” tour. Also if you want to take all four number one seeds go for it.

Stop trying to label double digit seeds that you pick to reach the final 4 as this year’s Butler. Butler came into the tournament last year on a 24 game winning streak; they had a top 10 pick and should have been a 3 seed but earned a 5 seed. The equivalent this year would be Xavier.

Name your bracket something clever: Its not a coincidence in all my years I never see at the top of my online pool “Jeff’s 124314 bracket” as the winner. The bracket that wins has a clever name, think Jimmer Jimmer Chicken Dinner, or Davies’ Babies. Just basically make fun of BYU in your pool and you have a chance. But if all else fails I am taking Pitt to win it all if you were wondering.

NL WEST PREVIEW

For years the NL west has been the laughing stock of baseball. The Giants have a plaque of J.T Snow and Rich Aurillia at AT&T Park, Colorado has a humidor, Dodgers have divorcegate and underneath all that camouflage  I almost forgot they play baseball in San Diego. And no I did not forget there is a 5th team but its to easy to make fun of a team that has a pool in their stadium so I will just breakdown how the standings will unfold:

Arizona Dbags : When the headline of a team’s media guide reads that they are pleased to welcome back Adam Laroche you can pencil them in last place.  There key additions include  drum roll please.. Armando Gallaraga which guarantees they will handle all the losses and bad breaks with class and dignity. What do you do when you have the worst bulpen in baseball? You sign JJ Putz? The equivilant to doing nothing.. Maybe it will be addition by subtraction. They let Brandon Webb, who has spent more time on the DL than the pitchers mound, go to the Rangers and the golden sombrero that is Mark Reynolds will strike out with the Orioles this season.  Prediction: Kirk Gibson gets so frustrated he tries to put himself in as a pinch hitter in the 9th inning of a game but even he can't even stop the inevitable 5th place finish. 

San Diego Padres: Last year’s Butler of baseball engineered one of the biggest choke jobs in a division in recent history.  Only reason it doesn’t get talked about more is because the only time anyone mentions the Padres is to talk about a little trade they made this offseason with the Red Sox.  Key additions include Cameron Maybin, Jorge Cantu, Jason Bartlett, and Brad Hawpe which should give the offense some extra power they did not have last year. Too bad no one hits homers in Petco: not even the great Jorge Cantu.  Prediction: This team does not have the pitching depth it had last year and trading Adrian Gonzalez will hurt more then they hoped. Expect them to panic and trade Heath Bell before the deadline resulting in a 4th place finish.

Giants: Last year everything went so right for this team that Cody Ross became a superstar and Aubrey Huff made giants management think all those years with the Orioles and Rays in his prime never actually happened. Being rewarded with a 2 year 22 million dollar extension will inevitably go down as the worst move in the NL west this offseason. You would think Sabean would realize the demise of the Marlins after winning the world series was not that they actually got rid of everyone on their team in a fire-sale,  but was in fact that they lost Renteria. Expect the curse of Renteria to hit S.F this summer. Prediction: Pablo Sandoval balloons to 350 pounds, stars on A&E’s “Heavy” while Brian Wilson will want to rage all summer. Expect a World Series hangover, resulting in a 3rd place finish.

Rockies: Carlos Gonzalez and Tulo could be the face of my franchise if I decide to run a team in mlb 2k11 this year. The rockies stood relatively still this off season which will come back to haunt them. They were in the running all off-season to get Uggla but are now stuck with Eric Young Jr. I wouldn’t want to be stuck with Eric Young Sr let alone his son. Jim Tracy will make enough mistakes and the Rockies will finish in second Place

Dodgers:  For a team that had no money to spend this offseason with their hands tied in a divorce they did a great job of stock piling mediocre players that include but not limited to: Thames, Barajas, Uribe, Lilly, Garland, Kapler. Problem is these players must have had good agents and fooled Ned Coletti into showing them the money.  Key additions include: me as a new owner of a 6 game mini plan and a bunch of triple A players, However Dee Gordon will be this year's buster posey leading the Dodgers to a division title. 

Sid The Kid

For some reason I've been on a hockey rant today. Hope I don't lose any followers, but the NHL will be on major network soon. If you didn't like 24/7 you're out of your mind. Better than NFL Hard Knocks. The NHL has some marketable players right now, and times have never been better for the League... oh wait I mean since the strike.

It's been bothering me for a long time with how many people hate Sidney Crosby. These people know nothing about hockey. That's like a person who claims to like tennis saying they hate Roger Federer (5 years ago). It's not possible if you have any respect for the game. Sid wears his C proud on his sweater, and people tend to forget he's 23 years old. He makes LeBron James look stupid. He already won a ring, is a respected captain and leader, and closes out games as we all sadly saw in the Olympics. This guy is the epitome of an athlete. If my kid every came up to me and said he wanted to be Sidney Crosby, I could smile because he would be the best in every aspect of life. How many athletes nowadays can we really say that about? Keep trying to get a handful. Still going?

The fact of the matter is the kid is unreal. He leaves every ounce of energy he has on the ice, and just does everything right. I'm not saying Ovechkin is a slouch, because that's just far from the truth. And yes, he plays with tenacity and impeccable skill every night. But Sid is the whole package.The guy even drops his gloves if he has to.  Haters gonna hate, but just know that your hating is solely for the sake of hating. You're argument has no possible justification.

John Saunders says it right here.

Oh and if Bryant Gumbel is running for President, Saunders can be his VP.

Bryant Gumbel

The man, the myth, the legend: Bryant Gumbel. Gumbel just blew my mind. Like legitimately I re-watched this clip On-Demand 7 or 8 times before I found it on youtube. I've never heard someone say in 1:43 what I've been attempting to blog about for weeks. This man speaks the truth.

This video is from the February edition of Real Sports, which if you haven't seen you should watch. Pretty good episode.

I don't even know what to say, or if I should even continue blogging after this. Just like how Bill Simmons is messing with Barstool's thing, Bryant Gumbel just rocked my world. I think he should run for President no joke. He knows more about sports than Obama. Isn't that what Obama does in the Oval Office? Just talk about sports? Guarantee Gumbel has a perfect resolution to the BCS, and could write the CBA for the NFL in one sitting. I would wash this guys feet for a living if he gave speeches like this every day.