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MLB General

The Official "Two Weeks Into the Season" Awards

By Rob LaBrie

Although we are only a little over two weeks into a very long baseball season, I feel compelled to write about what has happened so far just because there’s been so much going on.  We’ve seen an established superstar hit 9 jacks in 13 games and a guy with 19 career homers before this year hit 9 of his own through 13 games.  We’ve seen a guy come close to breaking Joe DiMaggio’s timeless hitting streak record.  We’ve seen a 40-year-old, “washed up” Mad Dog win his first three games in dominating fashion.  We’ve also seen a pair of Sox, one young and one old, win their first three games.  Oh yeah, we’ve also seen perjury charges and a homer-less 10 games for the guy with the biggest head in the game, literally.  What better way to sum up the season than with the first annual TWIS Awards?  

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MLB General

10 Reasons Baseball is still the National Pastime

10.    I’m sorry, but what you’ve heard is true. Chicks dig the long ball. Despite all the controversy that modern home run statistics are becoming irrelevant because of the live ball era, steroids, the lowered pitcher’s mound, maple bats, body armor for the hitters, diluted pitching talent, shrinking strike zone, global warming, outfield fences steadily marching inward, and the blasphemy above all- baseball being played in the thin air of Colorado- the home run is still revered above all plays in baseball. Do you remember anything about the playoffs last year besides bad umpiring? Yes, of course you do. You remember Albert Pujols tattooing a Brad Lidge fastball into the ozone layer. Just in the same way you remember crippled Kirk Gibson taking Eckersly deep to win game one of the series in `88, and Carlton Fisk’s body language that kept his deep fly fair to win the series game in `75. Almost every sports fan could recite verbatim the home run call when Aaron passed Ruth, yet would struggle on the first line of the Pledge of Allegiance. An old Nike commercial said it best: “Face it fellas, a low ERA just isn’t that sexy.”

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Philadelphia 76ers

Allen Iverson the Ball-Hog: The NBA’s Biggest Myth

By David J. Cohen

The Sixers season is over. Once again they will fall short of the playoffs. And with it begins the talk of whether Sixers G Allen Iverson should be traded both for his sake and for the team’s sake. And as the debate rages on the same image of Iverson is portrayed. He’s selfish. The ball must always go through his hands. He has to get his shots or he’s unhappy. He is built up as a great scorer, but as one that cannot help a contender because of his inability to share the ball. Professional NBA analysts and fans across the nation share a similar idea and see a similar image of Iverson as a player. This idea of Iverson is considered a fact of life. It’s the accepted belief of Allen Iverson as a ball-hog.

It’s the biggest myth in the NBA today.

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New York Jets

Jet-Lagged

Back in February the Jets appeared to be in a good position with the number four pick in this years draft. The Texans would take Bush, the Saints would take Young or Leinart, the Titans would take whoever the Saints didn’t pick, and the Jets would have their choice between Cutler and Ferguson. Oh if only life in the NFL were that easy.

Now the Jets number four pick seems less than desirable for their needs. When the Saints signed Drew Brees the Jet front office must have simultaneously said, “OH (Fill in the expletive).” Currently the Jets find themselves in quite a pickle with their position in this year’s draft.

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General Sports

Clayton Smith’s 2006 Mock Draft

The Draft is 12 days away, but after months of intense scouting and detailed observement I have come up with the #1 Mock Draft in the country, check it out.

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Chicago Cubs

Shift by Matt Waters

“The stars… there’s no right or wrong in them. They’re just there .”             – Elias, Platoon

A swing and a drive, followed eternally with a hop and a skip.

It was a big deal once, major news.

His joy was unbounded, unburdened, never prescribed to carry a synthetic image.

We were so ready for it to be real, zero questions were asked, no probing investigation regarding his jubilant sprint out into his fixed position in right, nary a cynic’s viewpoint following his indulgent celebrations.

The negativity had run its route. A new hero had emerged from a harrowing fog. Life not only welcomes simplicity in some instances, it demands it.

He is Sammy Sosa, in case we forget.

 

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NHL General

Who is the real ‘Great One’?

Two young men from Canada just over 20 years ago came into the NHL within a four year span and absoloutely destroyed their competition.  The torch was passed from stars like Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr to Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky, giving these two soon-to-be superstars the responsibilty of taking hockey to a new level with astonishing skills and enormous expectations.

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MLB General

Roommates Wanted

With the Barry Bonds witch hunt in full force, baseball shouldn’t forget the other key players.

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Atlanta Braves

Confessions of an Atlanta Braves hater

Who’s sick of the Atlanta Braves? If I asked ten people, I bet nine would raise their hands. I was always sick of them. More than any Mets fan, Phillies fan or any NL East wanna be du-jour. They have been clogging up baseball’s postseason since 1991, with only one championship to show for, in the post-strike 1995 season, when about three people cared outside of Cleveland and Atlanta.

I hated them. More than any professional franchise in sports. More than the Yankees, the Cleveland Browns or Philadelphia Flyers.

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NFL General

2006 NFL Mock Draft

by Trevor Freeman

With the NFL Draft exactly two weeks away, Reggie Bush is getting ready to hear himself get compared with Gale Sayers approximately 1,657 times and Matt Leinart is praying that New Orleans doesn’t draft him.  Drew Rosenhaus is readying himself to say “my client wants a $15 million dollar signing bonus” and Mel Kiper is pitching a tent.  The “do I watch the draft at home or go out and get wasted” decisions are being made.  Some might say I’m crazy, but I prefer watching the NFL and NBA Draft to watching a regular season game.  There’s just something about the combination of pro and college that makes for riveting television.