By Tom Kelly
So when Major League Baseball made the decision to exclusively include umpires with World Series experience in this year’s fall classic did it make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Well it probably shouldn’t have, because all it did was assure us that those making the incorrect calls would do so with decades of collective experience.
By Diane M. Grassi
As we embrace the initial games of the 2009 Fall Classic, otherwise known as the World Series, brought to you by Major League Baseball (MLB). Historically, it will be the latest start ever for a World Series, commencing October 28, 2009 and to possibly conclude as late as November 5, 2009, should a Game 7 be necessary.
But let us not digress, as there are more problems which should keep the minds of the brain trust of Major League Baseball, Inc. occupied, after a horrid conclusion, in the umpiring department, during the 2009 American League Division Series (ALDS), the National League Division Series (NLDS), the American League Championship Series (ALCS) as well as the National League Championship Series (NLCS).
Are you undecided on whom to root for in the 2009 World Series? Well, I’m here to tell you that the Phillies should be your team — for the next week or so at least.
Around here, we don’t take kindly to bandwagon jumpers. The thinking goes that if you haven’t suffered through the misery that is being a Philly sports fan, we don’t really want you celebrating the triumph of a championship. But that was during The Drought.
After carrying around the Championship belt for a full year, we feel (and this is a one time only offer) we can be magnanimous and offer fans of all teams a seat on the bandwagon this year. Yes, even you, Mets fans.
We’re about halfway through the season and only a handful of teams are showing themselves to be legitimate contenders for the ring. Meanwhile, the dregs of the league are so bad that Vegas took a bath last weekend because they simply can’t put a spread big enough to cover the ineptitude of the Browns, Rams, Chiefs, Raiders, and Bucs. The featured games this week are Denver at Baltimore, NY Giants at Philly, Minnesota at Green (I think a former player is going back to Lambeau this week or something.) and Atlanta at New Orleans.
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I would have written this a few weeks ago if I anticipated its outcome correctly. Obviously, I did not.
I thought the University of New Mexico was suspending head coach Mike Locksley as a pretense to fully relieving him of his duties, the standard “We’re suspending you without pay until our lawyers tell us how to fire you the cheapest.”
But, on Sunday, Locksley returned to his office in Albuquerque, N.M., resuming his duties as if nothing had ever happened.
What happened, of course, was that Locksley attacked receivers’ coach J.B. Gerald, leaving Gerald with a split lip and the accusation that Locksley punched him.
We’re into the heart of the football season and we have only 13 games on the docket this week. There aren’t a lot of strong story lines this week. Mostly we have teams coming off byes trying to figure out whether their team is a legitimate contender this year. The featured games this week are Minnesota @ Pittsburgh, Chicago @ Cinci, Atlanta @ Dallas, and New Orleans @ Miami.
You can download the podcast directly (running time 90 mins) or subscribe to the feed.
If you use iTunes, just click here and then click subscribe and iTunes will take care of the rest.
There should be some slightly better games this weekend despite some double digit spread laughers. Hey, they can’t make the Browns play the Bills again, right? Cleveland beating Buffalo 6-3 was the nadir of the young football season. I feel sorry for anyone who had to watch that. The featured games this week are Baltimore @ Minnesota, NY Giants @ New Orleans, Arizona @ Seattle, and Denver @ San Diego.
You can download the podcast directly (running time 90 mins) or subscribe to the feed.
If you use iTunes, just click here and then click subscribe and iTunes will take care of the rest.
This article is not going to be like anything I’ve ever written before because, quite simply, I’m jealous. And it shows.
Because I’m smarter than almost every head football coach, at least in terms of something as simple as clock management. And while I’m watching people with bigger contracts than the economy of Tuvalu make juvenile errors without anyone pointing out their errors, it makes me sick.
If you’re going to make $2 million a year to stand on the sidelines, eat cheeseburgers, and invent facial expressions that would embarrass even Wade Phillips, then maybe, just maybe you should be able to control the clock.
With the only exclusions of Bill Belichick and, for some reason, Dave Wannstedt, coaches just can’t seem to get it right. Over my decade carefully studying late-game clock management, those two reign above everyone else, calling plays and doling timeouts that used the clock to their advantage, regardless of how good (or in Wannstedt’s case, bad), they were outside of the proverbial final two minutes.
So for the rest of this article, let’s exclude those two coaches from this discussion.
Week 5 features such a crappy lineup of early games that if you need to win some points with the girlfriend or boyfriend, this is the time to schedule some apple picking or antiquing. With a slew of double digit spreads, this should be a snoozefest by 2:00. Make sure you get home by 4 though because there are some intriguing matchups in the late afternoon game. (Readers in time zones other than eastern can do their own math.) The featured games this week are Falcons @ Niners, Patriots @ Broncos, and Jets @ Dolphins. And just for fun, we talk about the UFL, which might have folded during the podcast.
You can download the podcast directly (running time 90 mins) or subscribe to the feed.
If you use iTunes, just click here and then click subscribe and iTunes will take care of the rest.
We’re at the quarter pole of the season and there are still a ton of questions surrounding most teams. Chances are that the 0-3 teams are just playing out the string (odds against them making the playoffs are astronomical), we have to wonder which 3-0 teams are for real and which ones are just lucky recipients of an easy early schedule. This week is the beginning of bye weeks in the NFL so we have 14 games to examine. The featured games this week are Ravens @ Patriots, Jets @ Saints, Cowboys @ Broncos, and Packers @ Vikings.
You can download the podcast directly (running time 90 mins) or subscribe to the feed.
If you use iTunes, just click here and then click subscribe and iTunes will take care of the rest.