We’re #1!

So, if you missed it, the Chicago Bulls somehow defied the odds and won the #1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft.  I have no idea how this happened.  Mathematically, they should’ve picked 9th.  I keep searching for an explanation because at one point (and now I don’t remember which team it was) the guys covering the lottery for ESPN said after team X was announced at pick whatever that this turn of events had somehow moved the Bulls automatically into the top 3.  Confused?  Yeah me too.  I can’t explain any of this, but all I know is, we got the #1 pick.

So now, who is it?  It’s obviously going to be either Derrick Rose from Memphis or Michael Beasley from Kansas St.  Now, either way, the Bulls will get a hell of a player, but I think it has to Rose.  Originally, I said Beasley was the guy because he’s a low post scorer and that’s something the Bulls desperately need.  But Rose has been called a cross between Deron Williams and Chris Paul, the two guys that everyone agrees are the best young point guards in the league today.  I don’t think you can pass on a player like that.  Derrick Rose is an instant, and I think substantial upgrade over Kirk Heinrich.  Rose is the kind of guy who makes everyone around him better.  Beasley’s a fine player, but I think Rose gives you more.  Rose is a leader who plays exceptional defense and I’m not sure you get that out of Beasley.  Beasley can probably give you 20 points and 10 rebounds a night, but I think Rose is a cornerstone player who can be great for years to come.

I certainly won’t be disappointed if the Bulls do what at least some “experts” say is the smart thing and take Beasley, but I just don’t think you pass on a player like Rose.  Of course all of this will depend on if John Paxon can trade either Ben Gordon or Kirk Heinrich because if he can’t, I can all but guarantee he’ll take Beasley.  But right here and now, I’m begging John Paxon to please, please, PLEASE take Derrick Rose and save Bulls fans from being a team that’s thisclose to winning, but never quite does.

And please hire a coach that doesn’t suck.  Thank you.

Ah yes, the panic button

It started with a simple text message.

“Seriously, what the %*#$ is wrong with us?”

This came after the White Sox found themselves down 7-0 to the Twins.  I actually had fallen asleep on the couch in the middle of the game while battling a headache, so truthfully, I don’t know what went wrong in that game.  But allow me to answer anyways.

Nothing.  Not one damn thing.

Yes, the Sox haven’t played consistently well lately.  Yes, they’re slumping at the plate.  Yes, they fell under .500 but got back to it last night.  But you know what?  It’s May.  The season runs until September.  It’s a cliche sure, but seriously, it’s a 162 game marathon.  Teams slump.  Just ask the Tigers and Yankees.  It happens every year.  The difference this year for the Sox vs. last year is that there are signs that they can turn it around.  The offense NEVER hit last year.  Not once.  Currently, Paul Konerko has raised his batting average in each of the last 10 games.  Jim Thome has been hitting well all season.  Jermaine Dye came off the injured list and has been hitting really well.  I mean REALLY well.  So my point is that the offense is there and is capable of being there.  They’ll hit again.  They showed signs of it last night in Seattle.

The bullpen has been very solid.  Now last year they started out on fire and then fell apart after mid May or so, so I’m still somewhat skeptical, but I do feel better about this group than last year’s.  Contreras, Floyd, and Danks have been better than solid.  Vazquez is throwing well and yes, Buehrle’s ERA is higher than we need it, but he’s been too good for too long for that not to come back down.

In other words, this is a solid team that’s going to right the ship.  They’re playing loose, they’re having fun, and frankly, I expect them to be right in the thick of things at the end.  Will the Sox end up winning the division?  Who knows.  It’s far too tough to tell with the Tigers still lurking and the Royals and Twins playing better than anyone expected.  But right now they’re in a much better position than, say, the Padres.  Look, we don’t know who the elite are yet.  We just don’t.  Yes, Arizona’s really good.  Yes, Boston’s really good.  But what if Upton or Drew or Webb or Haren get hurt?  What if Papelbon keeps blowing saves?  What if Ortiz or Manny get hurt?  Are the Yankees going to continue to hit below .200?  Of course not, especially once A-Rod and Posada come back.  Are the Padres going to continue to be terrible in a terrible division?  I doubt it.  Things see-saw all through the season and it’s far too early to hit the panic button now.

If the Sox still can’t hit in July, then yes, feel free to panic away.

Gavin Floyd, I owe you an apology

Tonight, the young Mr. Floyd took a no-hitter in to the ninth inning.  Earlier in the season, he took a no-hitter in to the seventh.  When the White Sox traded for him, I killed the deal.  Just killed it.  All I saw was the Sox trading Freddy Garcia, who had won Game 4 of the World Series for us and was a proven starter, for a guy who had a career ERA over 6.  My soul actually died a little.

Ah but flash forward to today.  Garcia has now spent almost two full seasons on the injured list and Floyd has almost thrown two no-hitters.  Oops.

So to you Gavin Floyd, I’m sorry.  To you Kenny Williams, General Manager of the White Sox, I also apologize.  Gavin, you are not a worthless pile of monkey spunk.  Kenny, you are not actually dumber than Britney Spears.

My bad guys.

I Ramble Therefor I’m Stupid

Ok, I’m warning you right now, this is pretty much just going to be me rambling.

First off, I saw a guy walking on campus today.  He was wearing a black trench coat and black hat (like the ones they wore in the 1950’s).  In fact, I think everything he was wearing was black.  Following closely was, I assume, his girlfriend wearing…you guessed it…all black.  I thought about this for a moment while I waited for the light to turn green, not because I find those kids scary like they’re going to shoot up a school or something, but because I find them very funny.  See, I assume they dress like that because in their mind, they’re rebelling against what they think we want them to be.  They don’t wear Abercrombie & Fitch clothes, don’t gel their hair, don’t listen to “mainstream” music.  I got news for you guys, you’re not rebelling against anything.  You consider yourself to be above us because you’re not caught up in material things, yet I question, how long did it take you to pick out that coat?  That hat?  How much money did you spend on your all black ensemble?  I’ll bet anything you spent more money and time crafting that look than I did on the outfit I’m wearing today, yet you would consider me to be another sheep.  Just food for thought.

Up until recently I thought that I would be fine with either Clinton or Obama winning the primary.  For the uninitiated, I’m an Obama guy and not just because I’m from Illinois.  I think he can do the most good for this country.  I must say though that recently I’ve been very disappointed with Hilary Clinton.  She’s almost constantly bringing up Obama’s connection with Reverend Jeremiah Wright who has said some fairly controversial things.  In the last debate which was watched by almost no one, she even made an attempt to connect Mr. Obama with Louis Farrakhan under the old six degrees of separation game.  But let me quote the great Stephen Colbert when he was discussing this: “if Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!”  Quick side note: I’m not Catholic, but I think the current Pope is capable of doing some great things and I’m a fan, but truth is truth…end side note.  What Mrs. Clinton has failed to mention is that after the Monica Lewinski scandal, whom did the Clintons bring to the White House for “spiritual counseling?”  Why, it was the Reverend Jeremiah Wright!  Interesting.  I give Obama credit for not bringing that in to the rhetoric yet.  Again, I don’t particularly dislike Hilary, I’m just disappointed in her lately.

NBA playoffs are going on, and if you like basketball, watch.  Seriously.  There’s some really good ball going on.  The Western Conference is just ridiculously good and there’s some really good series going on in the East.  Here’s my predictions:

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Lakers over Nuggets in 4

Jazz over Rockets in 6

Hornets over Mavs in 7 (this one could be a whole bunch of fun)

Suns over Spurs in 7 (again, could be a TON of fun to watch)

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Celtics over Hawks in 4 (I actually like Atlanta, but they’re vastly overmatched here)

Pistons over 76ers in 5 (I like the Sixers too, but I don’t think they’ll steal another one from Detroit, I think Detroit took them too lightly over the weekend)

Magic over Raptors in 6 (could go the other way if Chris Bosh can figure out how to contain Dwight Howard…which I’m not actually sure is possible)

Cavs over Wizards in 7 (Normally I’d say that Cleveland would win in 5 because I think LeBron can beat this team by himself, but Butler and Arenas are just ridiculously good and Washington believes in themselves)

I like the Pistons over the Celtics in the East, although I could easily see Boston winning.  I actually like Boston, but Detroit’s just too good and they have a big 4 where Boston only has a big 3, so you do the math.

The West is insanely difficult to pick, but I’m going to take the Lakers over the Suns in a fantastic 7 game series.  And even though it pains me greatly because I really hate Kobe, I think that the Lakers will be the champs, especially if Andrew Bynum gets healthy.  Don’t count Detroit out though, they’re physical enough to beat L.A. down and win.  That said though, this is the first time in quite a while where I just have no clue who’s going to win it all.  Should be fun.

NFL draft is this weekend, Jake Long will be the #1 pick.  I’m a firm believer that EVERYTHING in football begins and ends up front.  Left tackle is a notoriously hard position to fill and if there’s a potential franchise LT out there, take him.  Jake Long is that good.  I really like Chris Long (not related to Jake) but I think he goes #2 to St. Louis who need defensive help.  Matt Ryan goes 3 to Atlanta who desperately need a QB and McFadden goes 4 to the Raiders who desperately need everything.  After that, I have no clue.  I just hope my Bears take either an offensive lineman or Rashard Mendenhall at 14.

Baseball’s underway.  My White Sox are in 1st (awesome).  Today on The Score they asked “what’re you most concerned about with both teams (Cubs and Sox…both currently in first)?”  With my Sox, it’s still the bullpen.  Last year we started out on fire (David Aardsma didn’t give up a run until May, then he gave up a bunch), but then the pen fell apart.  The good news is that the lineup is hitting much better than all of last year and Danks and Floyd have been really good.  Jose Contreras still scares me.  I think we’ll need to address that sooner rather than later.  For the Cubs, I’d be concerned about a couple of things.  First off would be Alfonso Soriano.  I thought that they gave him too much money and too many years because he’s older than you think, but this injury is the latest in what’s becoming a long line of them and he may just be too far on the backside of his career to be the player the Cubs thought he’d be.  Kerry Wood concerns me too.  Shockingly, he’s spent 4.5 of his 10 year career on the DL.  Not good.  I’d be mighty worried about the starting pitching too.  Dempster’s been great, Zambrano’s Zambrano, but Lily is currently sporting a 9.16 ERA.  Now that will come down, but I doubt he gets much below 4, which isn’t real good.  I also doubt he wins more than 12 games.  Rich Hill has a much better 3.86 ERA, but just got his first win yesterday.  There’s some cause for concern there.

I can’t wait for Iron Man and The Dark Knight.  I don’t care what you think of me for that.

Finally, I ask a simple question.  If you are a woman, would you stay with a guy for 12 years despite the fact that he clearly has no intention of ever marrying you and treats you generally like a second class citizen?  I sincerely hope you said no.  Someone that I happen to be crazy about is doing just that and it makes absolutely no sense to me.  I’m not going to say I think I’m the greatest catch a woman could get, but I certainly treat women better than that and yet I’ve been single for 5 years and counting.  I’m telling you, there’s no justice in life.

Ah Doogie, You Are So Wise

Neil Patrick Harris, a.k.a. Doogie Houser, is currently one of the stars of How I Met Your Mother.  If you don’t watch it (frankly the ratings suggest you probably don’t…and neither do I), then you might recognize the name of the show solely from a recent, over-hyped guest appearance by one Britney Spears.  Britney wasn’t bad on the show, not that her part was all that big, but still you have to give the girl credit.  There’s been a lot of talk lately, most of which I think is total crap, that Britney’s going to join the cast full time.  You might be asking why?

Well, it’s because her one appearance on the show gave it a ONE MILLION VIEWER BOOST.  Seriously.  One million new viewers just because they wanted to see if she would screw up.  Obviously, the producers and network (CBS) has to take a look at that and think it might be a good idea to offer her a job.  Not if Doogie has anything to say about it though.

NPH said to the press that he really hopes the producers don’t book too many “stunt guests” like that.  Honestly, I agree with him.  The show is very Arrested Development-Esq from the standpoint that anyone who watches it loves it and wants you to watch it too, but you don’t.  Imagine if A.D. had taken to booking the likes of Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Simpson, Barry Bonds, and yes Britney Spears just to try and boost ratings.  On one hand, you could get a million new viewers who might stick with you, but at what cost?  Hardcore fans of the show, the ones who have lobbied tirelessly to keep you on the air, will most likely feel somewhat betrayed, or at the very least ask why.  But could it buy you another day?  Maybe.

Remember, TV is a for-profit business.  Ratings = revenue which is what the guys and gals that sign your paycheck want.  Now, from an artistic standpoint, is Doogie right?  Absolutely.  His show probably doesn’t need to book “stunt guests” to stay on the air.  After all, they’ve been on this long with no real threat of cancellation.  Is he going to get his wish?  Probably not.  Just look at how many guest stars Will and Grace trotted out over the years, and they didn’t even need the ratings help. 

But let me say this CBS, Britney Spears isn’t the answer.  You got your million viewer bump from her, and you might get another bump if you bring her back, but if you put her on the show full time, the novelty of it wears off mighty quickly and you’ll be stuck with an overpaid ticking time bomb.  So I think that before he makes any rash decisions, Les Moonves (head of the CBS TV division) should ask himself “What would Doogie do?”  Really when you think about it, we all should before we do anything.  I mean he graduated from Harvard at like 9 years old!

Bartman, 5 Years Later

Remember this guy?

 

That is the unfortunate Steve Bartman.  A guy who was widely blamed for adding to the Cubs 100 years without a World Series win.  I bring him up because I heard something on a sports talk radio station today that sparked a small argument at work.  A station in Chicago does a weekly segment in the afternoon called “Who you crappin’?”  The premise is simple, you find someone who may have engaged in some double talk or just general stupidity, and you “crap” them.  Moises Alou, who is the Cub player in the picture and currently plays for the Mets, was crapped last week.  Before we get in to why, if you don’t know the story of the 2003 NLCS, click here and scroll down to Game 6.

After the game, Alou claimed that he was just about positive he would’ve caught that ball.  Last week, Alou was asked about the incident and told the press “I doubt I would’ve caught it anyways.”  Hmmm, interesting.  Thus, we see why Alou was crapped.

I mentioned this at work and it sent the guy I was talking to in to a fit.  He claimed that Bartman interfered and cost the Cubs and blah blah blah.  Let’s look at the picture above.  That’s the exact incident in question here.  Is Steve Bartman (in the hat) in the field of play?  Maybe.  It’s hard to tell from that angle.  I honestly can’t tell if he’s over the railing or not.  Here’s what I do know, look at Alou’s glove.  To me, it doesn’t look like it’s far enough over to get the ball.  I think Alou mistimed the jump and he’s already on his way down in that picture.  In other words, he’s not going to be able to catch that ball because there’s too much of the wall in his way.  The umpire agreed and did not rule fan interference.

Now what really kills me is after the game, media interviewed other people that were in that section, or at least claimed to be, and all of them swore, SWORE that they knew that Alou was going to catch the ball and thus, did not even think about, let alone attempt to catch the foul ball.  Really?  Look at the picture again.  Look at the guy in the gray jacket.  He’s clearly going for the ball (just for laughs, check out the guy in the blue that’s between Bartman and the guy in the jacket recoiling in fear like “Oh my God it’s a baseball!”…makes me laugh).  Notice the hand behind scared guy’s head.  Again, clearly going for the ball.  I would also argue that the two guys behind Bartman are going for the ball as well, but that’s probably up for debate.  Point is, if it hadn’t been Steve Bartman going for that ball, it would’ve been someone else.  There’s a minimum of 3 people going after the ball.  That’s what you do when a foul ball or home run is coming for you, you try to catch it.  I’ve caught 2 foul balls in my day, neither time did I think “wait, I might interfere with the play, I should wait.”  No, each time I thought, “hey that’s coming right at me, I better catch it before it breaks my face.”

Here’s the ultimate point to all this: Steve Bartman wasn’t at fault.  He didn’t doink a routine double play ball that would’ve ended the inning, Alex Gonzalez did.  Steve Bartman didn’t leave Mark Prior in despite the fact that he was out of gas, Dusty Baker did.  Just like the 1986 Red Sox blamed Bill Buckner, you can blame Bartman if it makes you feel better, but it wasn’t his fault.  Just like the 86 Sox, the Cubs had another game to play.  9 whole innings, 27 outs, to get in to the World Series.  They didn’t do it and even if they had, there’s no guarantee they would’ve beaten the Yankees.  Steve Bartman didn’t deserve death threats, but he got them.  So to any and all Cub fans that are still angry over this, I say grow up.  It wasn’t his fault and it wasn’t a billy goat’s fault.  The team, and only the team, is at fault.

The Fairweather Fan, Nature’s Moron

Yesterday, I went to one of my more favored sandwich shops to grab dinner.  At this particular place, they grill up the meat once you order (part of the appeal for me) so you have to wait a few minutes for your food.  No big deal.  I sat and watched the end of the UCLA-Memphis game (don’t get me started, let’s just say I had UCLA winning it all over UNC so I’m not having a good weekend) and some guy who was sitting by himself felt the need to strike up a conversation with me.  Now, let me start by saying I really hate when people do that.  It just bugs me.  Anyways, he tells me that UNC will be the next to fall, which it turned out he was right, but then he starts telling me how University of Illinois Men’s head basketball coach Bruce Weber is going to leave for the newly vacated Marquette job.  This guy then tells me he’s glad because Weber isn’t a good coach and Illinois will hire Coach K (nope, not even going to try to spell his last name) from Duke.

Where do I begin to tell this guy how dumb he is?

Let’s start with Coach K…

If he didn’t leave Duke to coach the L.A. Lakers (you know, the team with that Kobe guy) when they threw a ridiculous amount of money at him, then Coach K isn’t about to leave for Illinois.  In fact, I don’t think he’ll leave Duke until he retires, which I respect.  So that’s this guy’s dumbass moment #1.

Now for the Weber comments, and this goes for just about 90% of the “fans” in this town…

Bruce Weber is one of the best coaches in the country.  Read that again.  If you truly are an Illinois fan, pray to whatever higher power you believe in that Weber never, ever leaves.  Bruce Weber has done more with some mediocre to flat out bad teams than most coaches ever could.  I contend that in 2005 when Illinois went to the “National Title Game That Never Happened”, they got there in no small part because of Weber’s coaching.  Bill Self, whom Weber took over for after he left for Kansas, would not have gotten that team that far.  They would have lost more than one regular season game and they never would’ve gotten past Arizona in the Elite Eight.  That’s just the truth.  Now I know, you’re thinking “hey wait, Self’s Kansas Jayhawks are going to play for the title tomorrow night” but let’s just wait and see what Memphis does to them.  My guess is they’ll take Kansas apart big time, but I digress.

Yes, this past season was terrible.  Yes, Coach Weber deserves some of the blame because he didn’t land the recruits necessary to prevent this.  I readily concede those points.  However, let’s look at this last season realistically. 

Strike 1 against Weber – Jamar Smith was arguably the best player Illinois would’ve had this year, however due to your standard college kid stupidness, he was suspended for the year.  That, as much as certain people want to blame it on him, is not Bruce Weber’s fault.  If you think losing a guy who would’ve been good for 15 to 20 points a game doesn’t hurt you, you don’t know basketball at all.

Strike 2 against Weber – Eric Gordon.  What can I say that hasn’t already been said?  Did Kelvin Sampson do some shady dealing to get Gordon to go to Indiana?  It certainly looks that way.  Can anyone blame Bruce Weber for that?  Not if you have a functioning brain cell in your head.  The only way to counter that is to cheat more than the other guy cheating.  Bruce Weber doesn’t work that way, and I commend him for it.  If it means we miss out on guys like Eric Gordon, so be it.

Strike 3 – Recruiting in general.  Yes, he deserves some blame here, he will tell you that.  But before you cruicify Bruce Weber for missing out on the Derek Roses and Eric Gordons of the world, remember, only one school gets those guys.  Rose went to Memphis, Gordon to Indiana.  That means the great Coach K failed in recruiting them.  Roy Williams at UNC failed.  Billy Donnovan at Florida, Rick Pitino at Louisville, Bill Self at Kansas, Billy Gillespie at Kentucky and so on and so on failed.  Get the point here?

This is the bottom line, you don’t get to blame a guy for one (1) losing season.  By the way, look it up, since he’s been at Illinois, this was the first losing season coach Weber’s had.  Great players can overcome bad coaching, great coaching can’t overcome bad players and we had some bad players.  Believe me when I say that getting rid of Brian Randle, who is by all accounts a great kid, and Shaun Pruitt will help tremendously.  The team will be better next year, they’ll be good in 2009, they’ll be great in 2010.  Every program has down years, so back off.  Either support the team, or don’t.  I don’t care which.  Just pick one and go with it, but DO NOT DARE talk about how great a coach is when everything’s coming up roses, and how terrible he is when things inevitably go bad.

As always with these types of things, if you think you can do better, apply for the job. 

March Madness…It’s FAAAANTASTIC!

Ugh.

Wait, that doesn’t cover it….

(Screaming expletives)

That’s better.

I love the NCAA tournament.  I really do, but I find I have a much harder time enjoying it anymore.  That’s because I, like so many of us, gamble on it.  Not a lot mind you, but $15 is $15, I mean that’s at least two trips to Taco Bell.  I watch, and I enjoy the games, but when oh say….Georgetown loses in the second round and I have them in the Final Four, I get a little upset.  Granted part of that is my hyper-competitive nature, but still.  So I wonder now if I should stop joining pools.  Part of me says I should just join ones on-line and see if I can win a new TV or something like that and not put forth any of my hard earned money so I can enjoy the games again.

Nah.  Where’s the fun in that?

I like to think that’s what makes things like the tournament fun.  Sure, Davidson becomes the bane of my existence, but unless they make it to the championship game and somehow beat UCLA, I more than appreciate what they’re currently doing in the tournament.  Now, without the money on the line, would I still watch?  Yes, yes I would.  Would I feel compelled to watch every game I can, check the Internet for scores while at work, and watch the scoreboards at the top of the screen?  Nope.  I would watch a little and if I happened to get a blowout game, I’d flip it and not come back for quite a while which would’ve been terrible because this year, I would’ve missed some really great games.

Which leads me to this…

For once CBS has gotten it right.  I usually kill CBS for their sports coverage (to be fair, I kill Fox too).  In fact, here’s what I wrote last year after round 1 was in the books….

CBS should be forced to give up the tournament.  Seriously.  Now, I’ll give them this, they managed to get the HD mostly right after being pretty average for the Super Bowl and flat out terrible for the GRAMMYs.  However, they insist on keeping Jim Nantz and Billy Packer and that’s just unacceptable.  You want a good play-by-play team?  Put Jay Bilas, whom they get on loan from ESPN every year, and the great Gus Johnson together.  Every game would feel like the title game with those two doing them.  Also, they refuse to break from your game if you’re in a “home market” to go to a better game.  Here’s what I mean:

Being the home of the University of Illinois, Champaign gets “home market” status for any Big 10 team playing in the tournament.  So while Nevada and Creighton played a nail biter overtime game, CBS would not break away from the Wisconsin game in Champaign.  Keep in mind that for the final 4 minutes and all of overtime of the Nevada game, the Wisconsin lead was double digits.  There were people in Madison yelling at CBS to break away.

Ah but then came this year.  CBS did break away from the Wisconsin game, and any other game that wasn’t close, to show you potential upsets or games that went down to the wire.  Well done CBS, well done.

So, yes, I could do what the NCAA wants me to do and not put money on the tournament, but really I think I’ll just be smart from here on out and never, ever pick Georgetown again.

Seriously, what’s a Hoya anyways?

I’m back

I’ve been ridiculously bad about posting lately, and for the roughly 4 people that read this, I apologize.  Work has been hectic and I’ve been training for a 5K run that happens in about a month.  Turns out I’m really not physically built for running.  I run flat footed and it caused a nasty case of shin splints.  My knees get more creaky with each day and now, for some reason, my left hip hurts.  Running, while incredibly effective, hurts.  Regardless, I’m determined to run this race.  I think once it’s over I’ll cut back my running schedule to no more than 4 times per week.  I think once it warms up and they open the pool at my apartment complex, I’ll switch to primarily swimming since there’s no impact on your joints at all when you swim.  Until then, I’ll continue to pack myself in ice on a nightly basis.

On to more important matters… this should make you sick to your stomach.  Yes, the idiotic record industry is at it again.  I have never once in my life been a customer of DirecTV.  Now let’s say that someone figured out how to pirate their satellite signal (who knows, someone may already have), and let’s say that this technology used to steal their signal became fairly wide spread among tech savvy people.  Then, DirecTV understandably says “enough” and finds ways to crack down on people stealing their signal and virtually stamp out pirating their signal.  However, let’s pretend that at the same time, DirecTV’s business model becomes obsolete yet they refuse to change it.  So now they’re losing money and they need to blame something.  Thus they blame the people who pirated their signal, yet their profits don’t increase.  So they decide that everyone must be guilty of this horrible crime against them and get the government to pass a tax that everyone has to pay.  How is it fair that I, who never used their services legally or otherwise, would have to pay that tax?

It isn’t.  So, if people like my parents, grandparents, and countless others who never even knew what Napster was are forced to pay a tax for people downloading music illegally, again I ask, how is that fair?

Things and other such nonsense

So it’s been a few days since I’ve put anything up because this week’s been insane with work stuff.  Thus, I’m going to put a couple of things in to one post here.  Most of it’s sports related.  You’ve been warned.

NFL free agency began this week.  I heard an interesting argument on The Score out of Chicago that free agency is ruining the NFL and possibly sports in general.  It’s not a terrible argument, but the host was just slightly wrong.  Free agency has existed in some form since the inception of pro sports, we just didn’t call it that.  Don’t believe me?  Have you ever seen the pictures of Johnny Unitas in a Chargers jersey?  How about Joe Namath with the Rams?  Franco Harris with the Seahawks or O.J. Simpson (remember, before he started killing people he was a damn good football player) with the 49ers?  All those things happened.  Those players weren’t traded, what happened was their previous teams (in order: Colts, Jets, Steelers, and Bills) decided not to offer them new contracts.  However, the players and obviously other teams thought they could still play.  So those teams offered them contracts and the players signed.  How is that any different from free agency?  The way that free agency is ruining sports is that it creates ridiculous contracts.  For example, yesterday former Bears wide receiver Bernard Berrian signed a 6 year 42 million dollar contract with the Minnesota Vikings.  Don’t get me wrong, Berrian can play and we’ll certainly miss him in Chicago, but he ain’t worth 42 million.  That’s what free agency does.  It creates a market that’s vastly inflated which leads to increased ticket prices that keep real fans from being able to afford to go to games anymore.

Spring training started as well.  I like the Red Sox to repeat.  They didn’t do much in the off-season to get better, but they didn’t get worse, and when you’re already the best team in baseball, shouldn’t that be enough?  The Tigers are probably going to be the favorites this year because they pulled a Patriots and became a walking, talking fantasy team, but we saw how that worked out for the Pats.  I think the same thing happens to the Tigers.  Cub fans, stop talking.  You will not win the World Series this year.  Fukudome is not the combination of Ichiro and Hideki Matsui like Lou Pinella said.  If he was, don’t you think the Yankees and Red Sox would’ve been all over him?  Yet neither team offered him a contract.  That says a lot about him as a player.  I think he’ll be solid, but he’s not going to be enough to overcome the massive lack of pitching the Cubs have.  I expect my White Sox to finish third in the AL Central this year.  I don’t think they can overcome the Indians or Tigers unless both teams get decimated by injuries.  I do however think the Sox will play much better this year, but I’m convinced that the bullpen is still trying to kill me.

Finally, I want to make sure you’re aware of an absolute travesty that’s happening in Seattle.  The Seattle Supersonics have been the city’s NBA franchise for 41 years.  They brought home the only professional championship Seattle has ever won.  Seattle is a wonderful city with truly great fans and they’re being screwed in the worst way.  Clay Bennett, an Oklahoma oil man bought the Sonics and, despite lip service to the contrary, immediately began working on moving the team to Oklahoma City.  Don’t get me wrong, OKC deserves a team, they have great fans, but they don’t deserve the Sonics.  Seattle does and only Seattle.  Memphis, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Charlotte have all demonstrated they aren’t basketball towns.  Memphis in particular could move to OKC and frankly, no one would care.  Yet Mr. Bennett will move the Sonics to Oklahoma City and Seattle will find itself without NBA basketball for the first time in 41 years.  The NBA could stop this.  The league has that power, yet they refuse to do it.  Why?  NBA commissioner David Stern is good friends with Clay Bennett.  In fact, Stern inducted Bennett in to the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.  See?  Collusion doesn’t just happen in politics.  Why should you care?  Well, because first of all this is a crime and it’s truly heartbreaking.  Second, if it can happen to Seattle, it can happen to anyone.  Not that long ago, L.A. had two NFL franchises, now they have none.  Imagine a world where Chicago has only one baseball team, no NHL franchise, and the Bears play in Milwaukee.  How about the Yankees in New Jersey or the Packers in San Antonio?  Granted, those are extreme examples, but remember that prior to the city of Chicago authorizing the remodel of Soldier Field, the Bears were going to go play in Gary, Indiana.  So while the Packers are probably the only team in all of pro sports that are safe from relocation because they’re owned by the city of Green Bay, literally every other team is open to this.  Is there anything you can do to stop it?  Nope.  Congress spends far too much time pouring over pictures of Roger Clemens at a pool party at Jose Canseco’s house from 1998 like it’s the Zapruder film, yet they won’t step in to help out the city of Seattle.  You’ve gotta love those priorities.