I Hate Skip Bayless

Everytime theres a big sporting event, a World Series, a NBA Finals or a Superbowl, without some big name (mostly east coast team) someone in the media starts complaining.

"This is boring" they say, no high stakes. You heard it during last years NBA Finals. No Lakers, no New York or Chicago. No Shaq. Boo hoo. It only had the two best teams in the NBA.

During the 97 Series Marlins Manager Jim Leyeland lashed out saying neither team has to apologize for being here.

This Super Bowl has got a team from the midwest versus a team from the northwest. Naturally, Skip Bayless isn't happy.

While Seahawks fans are sleepless in Seattle, media members are sleepy in Detroit. Somehow, the Seahawks and Steelers in Detroit seems like a consolation game. After three sensational weekends of playoffs, this is an anticlimax. Now we're paying the price for all those upsets.

and he actually says that these two teams aren't worthy of the commercials during the game:

How can these teams ever generate enough star power to live up to the telecast's Oscar-worthy commercials?

Bayless then explains that these two teams don't deserve to be here, citing all the 'luck' they had throughout the year:

The Steelers, the first sixth seed to make it to the Super Bowl, barely made the playoffs thanks to a fairly easy closing schedule. They beat Kyle Orton's Bears in a snowstorm in Pittsburgh, then took care of Minnesota, Cleveland and Detroit.

But would they have won their first playoff game, in Cincinnati, if Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer hadn't been hurt on his second play? Doubtful. Would they have finished off the season's most shocking upset, in Indianapolis, if Colts cornerback Nick Harper hadn't weaved back into a sprawling ankle tackle by Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger? No. Would the Steelers have been able to win in Foxborough if the Broncos hadn't upset the Patriots the week before in Denver? Highly doubtful. Would the Steelers have won in Denver if an early poor pass by Roethlisberger had been picked off in the flat by Champ Bailey and returned for a stadium-rocking touchdown? Probably not.

And now the AFC's sixth seed is favored over the NFC's top seed? This feels like a moderately interesting, Week 9 nonconference game.

Would the Seahawks have risen from 2-2 to home-field playoff advantage if Terrell Owens hadn't torn apart the Eagles? If Michael Vick hadn't regressed? If the Giants, Redskins and Cowboys hadn't been forced to do battle twice in the East and the Panthers, Bucs and Falcons hadn't beaten each other up in the South?

Things just kept breaking right for the Seahawks. Without bye weeks, the Redskins and Panthers were banged up before playoff games in Seattle -- where the Seahawks' 12th Man gives them the NFL's loudest and strongest home-field advantage.

Wow. Just wow.

The gall of the Steelers, to win the games they played in the regular season. I mean, those bastards. The Steelers are just lucky, I mean, to win all their games on the road. To beat a 1, 2 and a 3 team? Luck, luck luck. If Big Ben hadn't made that tackle on Nick Harper... lets forget about the horrendous interception replay.

And the only reason the Seahawks are here is because Michael Vick sucks. I mean, who cares that Seattle spanked the Eagles, in Philly on Monday night, 42-0. Or that they beat Atlanta 21-18 early in the year. And the Seahawks are just lucky that other teams play their division opponents twice a year. Those lucky bastards.

Look, you can make these arguments all over the play. Well if that Pats hadn't fumbled vs Denver... or if Jordan missed over Ehlo. Or if the Indians hadn't choked the last week of the year.

Here's all these teams can do, beat the teams infront of them. And thats what these two teams did. They shouldn't have to apologize for not being in bigger markets. Or not having a loud mouth like TO. These are two of the deepest, most balanced teams in football.

I hate Skip Bayless.

The Coco Trade

Some have you (okay, one person) have asked me why I haven't written about the BoSox-Indians trade, and I have a few reasons:

1. I've been busy as all hell. Class, two jobs (one that schedules me whenever the fuck they feel like it), doctor visits and car troubles are part of the reason.

2. I kinda forgot about it. The deal was 'rumored' for so long, when it finally happened, it didn't really get my attention.

But now I'm addressing it.

I didn't like the trade to begin with, and I'm still not completely sold on it. I knew the Tribe was getting an outfielder who to play this season, but I still felt like they were creating a hole, when there were other areas to address (1B and a power hitting OF).

Plus, I wasn't sure if Crisp needed to be traded, some people think he could develop a power stroke, and if thats the case, the Indians blew their wad a year too soon. At the same time, the argument could be made that Crisp was at his peak, it was a weak OF market and the Indians would never see a better deal.

Also, I was kinda worried about Marte, if he really was the real deal. I mean, the kid has been traded twice in the past few months. First he was traded for Edgar Renteria and now hes gone again. I dunno what to think about that.

But my biggest protest about the deal was the perception that it creates. Event though this deal wasn't about money, it looks that way. The Indians trading for prospects again. Dolan afraid to pay for a player. Blah blah blah.

What the Indians need is for Michaels (the OF from the Phillies) to have a good year and not miss a beat. The team played great last year and still didn't draw. If it looks like that the Dolans won't spend money to keep this team together, why would some (fickle) fans think that they would ever put up for a winner (even though the highest Tribe payroll was under Dolan).

So what now? It finally happened, what do I think. Well, I am encourged by the Sports Guy's take on it:

One problem: They overpaid for him. Crisp was worth more to the Red Sox than he was for the Indians, the Indians knew it ... and they squeezed the Sox in the process. Cleveland's GM Mark Shapiro, (not the same Mark Shapiro who once greenlighted "ESPN Hollywood") even said as much, explaining that they knew Crisp has the most value as a centerfielder, but since they already had Grady Sizemore there, Crisp was stuck in left field (diminishing his intrinsic value as a player). But since the Sox desperately needed a centerfielder, and since the organization didn't want to look bad after the whole Theo-leaves-Theo-waffles-Theo-returns soap opera, they wanted to get this trade done so everyone back home would stop complaining, "It's almost February, we don't have a centerfielder or shortstop yet!" So they overpaid for a guy Cleveland didn't really need. Shapiro even said as much, telling reporters this weekend, "It was too much to turn down."

Here's the problem: To obtain Crisp, the Sox gave up a package including young third baseman Andy Marte, who's considered one of the best prospects in the league and someone with Scott Rolen's ceiling. Trading Marte straight-up for Crisp would have been slightly overpaying the Indians -- Crisp has a B-plus/A-minus celing, while Marte has an A/A-plus ceiling. But because the Indians were holding them hostage, the Sox had to sweeten the deal even beyond Marte (it turned out to be a 7-player trade). Everyone in Boston seems to be okay with this. In fact, I was okay with it ... until I read Shapiro's "it was too much to turn down" quote.

So if the Red Sox think the overpaid for Crisp, I'm all good. I also enjoyed this:

I just wonder if, at some point down the line, it's going to sink in that the Great Andy Marte belonged to the Red Sox for seven weeks ... and then they traded him away in a package for Coco Crisp that was so loaded, it resulted in the other GM saying, "It was too much to turn down."

Because that would suck.

Peter King also weighed in as well (in his Non-Football Thoughts of the Week, in another excellent MMQB):

b. Re: the Coco Crisp trade. A year ago, Crisp was Cleveland's fourth outfielder. He had a pretty good year. And now the Red Sox trade third baseman Andy Marte -- one of the top, say, 20 minor league prospects in baseball -- plus a reliever, Guillermo Mota, and $1 million, for Crisp. I think there's a reason Cleveland's Mark Shapiro is a great general manager.

But what really sold me on the deal was this analysis of trade by Let's Go Tribe.

So, if Michaels can pan out in the short term... I'm all about it. And here's hopin that Marte is as good as everyone thinks he is.

Cavs Halfway Point

Everyone is going to make a big deal about how the Cavs have (close to) the same record this year at the halfway point as they did last year.

It means nothing.

First of all, the Cavs are better this year. Just having Marshall and Hughes makes them better. And last season, the Cavs had a really weak schedule to start the year. Really weak, they played the Bobcats and Hornets practically every other night. Not so this year.

Plus, the Cavs are actually buckling down on defense this time around. So I highly doubt that they'll fold like last year.

Also, I heard a Drew Gooden for Andre Miller rumor on the radio today. Let me say this: yes please.

Just signed up

to myspace, I already prefer Facebook, but for that you need a school email, so some people aren't on it.

But so far, at least, I still prefer the Facebook.

Been busy

work is fuckin me over, classes are a bitch, i may need shoudler surgery and theres a ton of shit... but this is the stuff i've been devouring lately.

Wrong Way Ricky Davis

Is traded for Wally-World. Nice deal for both teams, plus they traded shit for crap, The Kandi Man for Mark Blount, whoo whee.

Whats weird, is the Davis signed with the Wolves a few years ago as a restricted free agent, only to have the Cavs match the deal. Now hes finally there.

It's been a good year

So right now I'm home for a funeral, which is tomorrow morning. Earlier today I went to the doctors to check on my shoulder; I'm having an MRI on Tuesday and right now theres a 50% chance I'll need surgery.

Also, when I left for the office today, I found a note on my car apologizing for the giant dent in the side of it. She "slid into my car." Right, with that lack of snow on the ground. "Slid"

Also, I'm pretty sure my bosses are pissed off at me for telling them I'm coming in late tomorrow due to the funeral (and I'm pretty sure they are pissed at me because I had the audacity to complain that they sheduled me both Saturdays and Sundays when I explictly told them I couldn't work both Saturdays and Sundays)

Hooray for 2006!

The Crisp Trade is Off

I guess.

I wasn't too thrilled with the trade to begin with, but it wasn't a terrible deal, especially if Marte (the 3B prospect the Tribe would be getting) worked out. But I felt like they were opening up a hole they didn't need to, but maybe they have more confidence in the farm system than I do.

Also, check out this Tribe blog for all your rumor needs.

Terry Pluto Also Agrees with Me

From his newsletter:

• All the West Coast trip did was prove LeBron James is human. He was pressing, and I also think the big minutes that he has already played this season have made him a little tired, even if he won't admit it.

• When Michael Jordan was 21, he was majoring in geography at North Carolina, where he was a junior averaging 19.6 points for Dean Smith. I've been hearing more and more that LeBron hasn't measured up to Jordan, or Michael would have made that shot that LeBron missed. Too many people compare a 30-year-old Jordan with a 21-year-old James.

• Many fans have trouble thinking of James as 21 because he looks 30, sounds 30 and usually acts 30. He has not gotten enough credit for the way he has handled himself in the public eye.

heh

oh spying

Gilmore and I saw this live

and it was hilarious.

not that this is anywhere near as important as my previous post

but kobe scored 81 points tonight. holy shit.

For the longest time I've only known two people who have commited suicide. As of last night that number grew to 3.

During my first quarter at college, a former pastor of mine hung himself. I loved that man, he was great. He taught my confirmation class at my church and we went on some retreats and stuff. He could always talk to you, and you could challenge him to debates and shit. Debates like "Is God real," and you'd have an intelligent discussion. He's the one who really opened me up to spirituallity and religion. It was a shocked me to learn he hung himself.

The second person I knew was a kid a year older than me. I had some friends who knew him better, I knew him when I was younger, like 2nd grade, but I never really talked him much. But it still is a shock. Just takes the wind out of you. To hear someone you know took their own life. Wow.

Well, today I got a call at work from Sepe. A kid we knew committed suicide. His girlfriend and him broke up, I guess he drank a bottle of wine and sat down on some train tracks and let the train do the work.

He was a freshman my senior year in highschool. He was in our section in band, he played football every Friday with the rest of the Trombones. He also worked at the Hudson Library with us. I helped train him there, and we worked together whenever I was back on breaks during my first couple years of school. Damn. Just a punch in the gut.

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I've thought about suicide. I have, but never seriously. I think everyone has at one point. Bad day. Bad week. Bad month. Shit happens. I get depressed, I do. Again, I think everyone does. I struggle with a my weight a lot, or work or girls and lack the thereof. Or I get to wondering if I'll ever make in the real world. Did I pick a dumb major? Should I do grad school? Could I make it in grad school? Can I handle the work load I sign myself up for?

And sometimes I start to think that the answers to those questions are 'no'. And I wonder what it would be like to just rest and not worry anymore. But ya know what? Everytime I think that thought, everytime, I think about my family. And how much I would hurt them. How sad my parents would be, my brother and sister. How that would hurt my friends. And everytime I think about that, I know I could never do it.

Ever.

But every now and then the thought creeps into my head again. After a bad day or bad week, it happens. I'm sure that happens to everyone. But nothing is worth taking your life. No girl is worth killing yourself for.

And I can't imagine how that girl feels now. Or his parents. I just can't. They must be devastated.

It's weird that he's gone. Everytime I hear that someone has died I always don't believe it. Even if its a celebrity and I read it on CNN, my first thought is that the story is wrong. They'll pull out of it. And today when I heard the voicemail Sepe left me, I thought, "No, he's wrong, he fucked up the story."

It's rough, it's hard to just think he's gone. *Poof* from here on out you can never talk to him again. Just like that.

All I can say is that my thoughts and prayers are with his family. I can't possibly imagine what they're going through.

--------------

From what I've heard, the funeral is sometime on Friday. I'm going to try to make it up to Hudson. I do have to work on Friday, and I'm not sure how they'll like me missing another day, after I missed last weeked because of the shoulder (which still hurts like a bitch, though only when I move it a certain way, and I do my best not to move it that way). But I'm going to do my best to make it up.

Songs that Sound the Same

This came up at work the other day, and I started to think of songs that sound really really alike, and heres what I got so far:

Puddle of Mud - She Fucking Hates Me and REM - Stand

Jet - Are You Gonna be My Girl and Iggy Pop - Lust for Life

Offspring - Why Don't You Get a Job and The Beatles - Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Anyone got any more?

Oscar Robertson and Rick Barry Agree with Me

From the PD:

James said he has to make the adjustment to become more selfish late in games. Barry, however, said it is not about being selfish.

"It's about being smart," said Barry, who was the only man to lead the NCAA, NBA and old ABA in scoring. "It's about being smart enough to take the open shot and only passing if your man is open for a layup. It's about being smart enough to go to the hole and possibly drawing the foul and working on your free throws. I can help him with that by showing him how to do it underhanded."

Robertson, the only man to average a triple double for an entire NBA season, said the game-winning shots will come. Learning how to play during those crucial seconds takes time.

"It's something you have to learn," Robertson said. "You can't worry about missing a shot or a free throw because it's going to happen.

"The criticism he's receiving comes with being a great player . . . Cleveland has not won in a long time and if [the fans] think one player is going to take them to the promised land, they're mistaken. You need complementary players and a bench. They're not there yet."

LeBron and Not Being Clutch

There's been a lot of talk recently (on the air, online and at the local bars) about how LeBron isn't clutch. He's had a pretty shitty road trip in the clutch department (he has been averaging something like 34-8-8, so this criticism is kinda nit picking). Even the The Sports Guy took a mailbag question and brought up Kobe airballing in the 97 Jazz Series.

He missed a game tying free throw and the game winning shot in LA and he missed another tying free throw in Denver and passed the last shot to Sasha Pavlovic.

And with Melo hitting a few big shots lately and Kobe seemingly doing it nightly, there's a ton of talk of LeBron either having the marbles or the fortitude or whatever in the closing seconds.

So far? Ya, I can see the point. But I've heard people talk about how he'll never be clutch or how some people have it and some people don't. This my friends, is bullshit.

I think the game winning shot is what LeBron missed the most out of skipping college. Overall, LeBrons game is far supierors to Melo, however, Melo went through a NCAA Tournament. Pressure packed games, win or go home, buzzer beaters. The Fuckin Tourney.

LeBron missed this experience. Lord knows what LeBron could've done in college. He obviously didn't need college ball for the most part. But I think missing the pressure of the tourney may have stunted his late game growth a little bit.

----------

I was watching a little documentary on Magic and Bird's 1979 NCAA title game, how it set the stage for their NBA careers. Both Magic and Bird talked about how they were at the top of their games and how that season was a product of their previous college years. They both emphasised that they and their teams had to "learn how to win." Magic especially talked about how Michigan State fell short the season before, and they had to learn how to close out teams.

Both Magic and Bird played on the big stage in college. Jordan hit a game winning shot in college. Melo played on the big stage as well. NCAA Championship games, tournament runs, this helped them.

People forget before the Lakers won, Kobe airballed some huge potential game winning shots versus Utah. He had to learn too (and the learning accelerates with Shaq as your teammate and Phil Jackson as your coach- not that I'm not fans of Z and coach Brown, they just aren't Hall of Famers).

--------

So my point is this. Do I think LeBron needs to step up more in the clutch? Yes. Do I think its a huge deal right now? No. It's a tough time in the year right now, a losing streak on a west coast trip. And lets not forget that the Cavaliers starting two guard and power forward are out. Oh, and neither point guard can shoot. Not the defensive pass first pg (Snow) nor the 'shooter' (Jones). So its a rough patch.

At the same time, LeBron is younger than me. He just turned 21. I'm pretty sure Bird, Magic and Jordan were still in college. The Cavaliers and LeBron are still learning how to win, and it takes time. Think about the playoffs.

The Pistons lost to the Celtics for years before breaking through. Bulls were the same to the Pistons. These things take time. Winning is learned. Closing out games/teams is a learning curve.

The Cavs and LeBron are light years away from where they were 2 years ago. They still have dead weight (Newble, Jones, Snow kinda, Gooden kinda). Fans want LeBron to bring the championship rings yesterday. The Cavs have gone from complete shit, to mediocre to above average in 3 years. Thats pretty good.

So I wouldn't worry about LeBron, though, if he's still missing free throws when hes old enough to rent a car (25) then I might start.

Billy West (Frye) Says Futurama is Back

4 DVD movies. Yes. And. Yes.

(the 2nd to last post)

IQ Test

Found this on Digg, its a bit biased (meaning people who grew up in Britain may have it a little bit easier), so its not exactly inate intelligence. But still, its fun.

19+ is supposed to be a genius, I got 18, well, it might be 17, I couldn't get number 32 to count, but I don't know what else it could be. Also, I got 90% of number 6, but for the life of me couldn't figure out the last part (but looking back, I think I could've gotten it had I had any patience).

Still, pretty neat.

Friday Random 10

I've seen a few other blogs doin this, and I figured, "Hey, that looks neat, I'll copy them"

Bird House in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants (off of Flood)

Rosalita - Bruce Springsteen (off of The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle)

Catch My Disease - Ben Lee (off of Awake is the New Sleep)

Smile - Robert Randolph and the Family Band (off of Unclassified)

Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder (off of Songs in the Key of Life)

In My Life - The Beatles (off of Rubber Soul)

Mudfootball (For Moe Lerner) - Jack Johnson (off of Brushfire Fairytails)

Paul McCartney - SR-71 (off of Now You See Inside)

One Hit Wonderful - Reel Big Fish (off of We're Not Happy 'til You're Happy)

American Music - Violent Femmes (off of Why Do Birds Sing?)

Cavs lose again

This has been on bad road trip.

If there's a bright side, its that they aren't getting blown out. They lost to the Lakers by 1, Blazers by 2 and the Nuggets by 1. I mean, its not good, but its not awful.

There's going to be a lot of talk about LeBron not hitting game winners comin up. "Can LeBron handle the pressure?" "Is LeBron the next Michael?" you'll see.

LeBron will hit his shots, don't worry.