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.