Panic Time

I feel like an idiot for even posting this, because it's the first 5 games of the season. I'm panicking over the Red Sox right now. There has never been a team to start the year 0-4 and win a World Series. Although that's just a ridiculous stat and means nothing, I'm freaked. This is why I'm panicking.

Just when I thought that Josh Beckett was going to have a comeback year (as I think with A.J. Burnett), he had his typical start last night. Solid through 3, and when the 4th or 5th comes around, he gets absolutely crushed. Although every ace has looked sloppy minus Lincecum tonight, the Red Sox are struggling.

Carl Crawford is not going to be the hero. Yes every team wanted him and the Sox overpaid him, but he will never be the guy to win an MVP or win you the game. He will hit .300, get 50 stolen bases, and NEVER hit for power. Youk will get it going, but he struggled through spring training and will struggle for the month of April. Other than J.D. Drew's playoffs in 2007, he has been awful. Is Mike Cameron a plausible backup? I almost think they should give Kalish a shot or let Darnell McDonald play. Hell if the Giants can win a World Series with a career minor leaguer like Torres, why can't the Sox win with McDonald?

This is the thing that really gets me: every team that wins a championship in any sport has role players. Will big egos play a role or will they all try to do it themselves all year? Hopefully the Sox will finally get a win and allow me to stop pulling all my hair out.

Hey, hopefully the Sox will be just like the Miami Heat and everybody doubt until it comes around to playoff time.

Greatest Pitching Duo/Trio Ever?

So add on to the last post. Pitching Duos. Everybody is just all over the Phillies staff right now calling it possibly the greatest ever. That's giving a lot of credit to Oswalt and Hamels. This got me thinking about great staffs.

The Diamondbacks staff in 2001 was awesome. Schilling and Randy Johnson co-MVP's. Sick. Obviously I'm biased and think that Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Derek Lowe in 2004 was unreal too, but they doesn't even come close to the Braves staff in 90s. Glavine, Maddux, Smoltz, and either Avery or Millwood. Can you tell me honestly that the Phils staff right now is even close to this? That's 3 HOFer's on one staff. It's not even a question which staff is better. Add on the fact that they pitched during the Steroid Era and didn't juice like Petite and Clemens.  Plus, give me a commercial better than this one. There isn't one out there.

Greatest Baseball Player Ever?

I've been thinking a lot about who the greatest baseball player in my lifetime has been. And it may piss a lot of people off, but Barry Bonds is top 3 in my list. The one player almost everybody forgets about is Ken Griffey Jr. If Griffey did not get hurt, he would have murdered Hank Aaron's home run record. The difference between him and Bonds? There would be no asterisk in the record book. Griffey was everybody's childhood hero. He was the first guy to have his own baseball shoes named after him. He also had the greatest sports video game ever named after him. Also had some pretty incredible commercials.

What else do you need to know? Here's a few numbers to prove this point: ROY, 13 time all-star, 10 time Gold Glove winner, 7 time Silver Slugger Award winner, Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Career .284 hitter with 630 HR's, 2,781 hits, 1836 RBI's. Guy was an absolute legend. Without injury, greatest baseball player to ever play the game.

Urban Meyer

Wooah. Wait.... I thought Urban Meyer was retiring from Florida so that he could spend more time with his family. Isn't that why he said he quit? So am I just imagining or did I see him on College Football Live today? Oh and he's going around to every team's spring practice? That's quite a busy schedule for a guy who is with his family all the time.

Masters Week

It's Master's Week. Is anyone as excited as I am? If you don't like the Masters, GTFO. Sure the US Open is great, and it's fun to watch guys play in brutal weather in Scotland, but there is just nothing even close to the Masters. It's on another level, and American or not, the players understand that. 

That being said, I am actually one of those people that still believes in Tiger. I'm waiting for him to burst on the scene, and I'm thinking this is the perfect week for it. Yeah ESPN follows every hole he plays even at the smaller tournaments, but this is his chance: the entire world will be watching to give it the big FU and say "I'm back". Isn't it still funny that Vegas has Tiger as an 8-1 shot to win the Masters when he hasn't proved any readiness yet to do so? I love how odds trust the man just like I do. 

Although I've said all of this, I'm picking Martin Kaymer and his 15-1 odds to win it. Love the guy's game. 

don't hype a college game

I've been scratching my head trying to figure out how a team can play that bad? Was Butler watching Jim Calhoun's pregame speech and fell asleep? Jim Calhoun won't be advising Disney on movie lines anytime soon "Let's make sure we go out and get 'em." wow Jim wow. All the players appeared bored but then the speech ended and was followed by ONE UCONN player clapping. The game was so boring not even buffalo wild wings could save it. The truth is, this is what we are going to have as long as kids keep leaving for the NBA early. The final 4 should have featured Kevin Love on UCLA, Derek Rose on Memphis, Eric Gordon playing for Indiana but these players are playing in the NBA All star game. Every game in the tournament was low quality but this game is getting written and trashed on because its the only game that had "expectations" and featured alone. The future of NCAA FINALS are going to be two teams that feature 2 upperclassmen whose future in the NBA is as a role players until there is a rule change in regards to the NBA DRAFT.

national championship game

Just as I predicted a month ago.. tonight for the national championship Butler will play Uconn. Ok maybe i had both teams losing before the sweet 16, But this game seems fitting now. Kentucky came into saturday's game with what seemed like absolutely no game plan on either side but especially offensively. They were like an NBA team playing totally 1 on 1 basketball praying outside shots with hands in their face fell through the hoop and they panicked when Harrelson was in foul trouble. Calipari will never win a championship, On the other hand tonight is the complete opposite of Coach Cal, a coach named Brad Stevens who does his homework, has a game plan and the team executes it to perfection. Butler will make Uconn's defense look bad because that's what they are a bad defensive basketball team. Butler is built as a defensive basketball team, so expect Butler to contain if possible Kemba Walker. Kentucky gave him way to much credit which led to easy baskets. Butler plays better team defense and will shut down Kemba. I see the game being close Butler maybe even trailing but expect around 12-15 minutes left in the second half kyle marshall will come in be the offensive rebounding machine he is and take the lead for good as Butler wins by 6-9 points.