More than two months removed from the World Series, it is safe to say that the power may be shifting quietly in the American League West. With big names like Alfonzo Soriano, Kenny Rogers, and Octavio Dotel (is he really still a star?) all heading to other teams outside the division, the changing of the guard indeed has begun.
With the New Year approaching every one has their New Years resolution that they will break or completely forget about come January 15th. But for the time being I’ve decided to give each Met player a New Years resolution in which they should fully oblige by in order for this 2006 season to be a memorable one.
On September 4, 1968, Michael Joseph Piazza came into this world via Norristown, Pa. Ronnie Belliard was born on April 7, 1975 in the Bronx, N.Y. And, in the great year of 1975, in the even more fantastic month of July, Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez was born in New York City. All three ballplayers were born in the United States of America.
As of January 1, 2006, however, Belliard was registered as a player for the Dominican Republic in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. Piazza? Italy. Alex Rodriguez, one of the world’s finest baseball players? No team. Is anyone else upset by this trend?
Matthew 20:16 — "So, the last will be first, and the first will be last"
Because the colors.
The years blur together. Speed past one of many haunted avenues. Fullback Leon Johnson has a decision to make. While galloping along the rock hard turf surfacing Detroit’s Super Dome, he can either break forward past a line of scrimmage for the temporary salvation of a broken play, or he can pass, play the hero of circumstance, and prove one of Bill Parcells’ worst game deciding hunches correct. A berth in the playoffs is in the balance. A season after finishing 1-15, the New York Jets, official punch line for the A.F.C., are a single decision away from a previously unthinkable wild card invitation to the Post Season. The clock is ticking. Lion defenders, also fighting with vigor for their Playoff lives, viciously close in on Johnson. A touchdown pass would have won it.
An interception lost it.
The Jets go home.
The end of college football’s regular season is here. With it comes the everlasting debate of whether a playoff system should be implemented into college football rather than the current Bowl Championship Series (BCS).
The World Baseball Classic this coming March is an event that many of us baseball fans have penciled into our 2006 calendars. Slowly the event is creeping into the Sports Media forefront and it should gain even more momentum as the college and NFL seasons wrap up. With the winter meetings and the majority of the baseball off-season behind us, for baseball fans the WBC is the next thing to look forward to. Small controversies have already begun with the debates ranging from Mike Piazza’s country of birth to the Yankees ability to withhold catcher Jorge Posada from the event. While these issues are important to fans of the countries that these players seek to represent, the more pressing problem is the exclusion of Cuba from participating in the WBC. This is something that has not been discussed with necessary urgency up to this point. Cuba has a long tradition of baseball greatness and whatever your politics might be the exclusion of a country that has made such a significant impact on baseball throughout the world should be problematic to any baseball fan. The shortsightedness of George Bush, himself the former owner of the Texas Rangers, to allow a political vendetta to exclude Cuba from participating in a World Baseball Classic is something that fans around the world should be challenging. If the World Baseball Classic is to be set up as a yearly event, the exclusion of one country, by another for political reasons sets a dangerous precedent. With many Latin American countries, notably Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina democratically electing presidents with strong anti-United States reputations, it seems likely that by 2009 the pool of eligible countries will have shrunk again, eliminating other countries with long reputations within the sport.
During my two-and-a-half months as Jeff Van Gundy’s “co-worker,” I never saw him smile. Not once. As an intern covering the Houston Rockets for the team’s official Web site, I ran into head coach Jeff Van Gundy on multiple occasions — and never once saw him smile. He would smirk. He would stifle a laugh. He would furrow his eyebrows and think intensively; apparently annoyed at the line of questioning that was thrown his way.
But he never smiled.
by Matt Waters
As the dogs days of August began to grudgingly give way to the promise of September, nary a thought of foreign politics or agendas swirled through my mind as I happily clutched the tickets to Cal Ripken’s final home game at Camden Yards. In just a few weeks, I’d be sitting in a modern cathedral, bowing at the altar of baseball history. The days dropped off the calendar with routine ease. September 9… September 10…
Last week was a tough week and this week doesn’t look to be any easier. Who knows how well the second stringers of teams who have already clinched playoff seeding will come out and play against the dregs of the league. Colts? Seahawks? Bears? They’re just looking to rest their starters. Then there’s the dreaded scoreboard watching that could quickly deflate a team. Bettor beware. But, here we go with the week 17 picks.
Note that there is no podcast this week but we’ll be back next week with our playoff predictions podcast.
Continued from “We Are Penn State Football – Part II – PSU vs. scUM Part II of II”
The Penn State vs. Michigan game really turned out to be a classic, overshadowed greatly by the great USC vs. ND game. ESPN Classic would later show the PSU vs. scUM game a few days later as an “instant classic” during the coming week. I watched the game not because I wanted to see the worst game I have ever watched all over again, but because I had to see the blown coverage on the last play of the game by Calvin Lowry. Sure enough, Lowry’s man is wide open and Lowry is no where to be seen on the TV.