Give Us Back Baseball

A great post by Peter Abraham from The Journal News. If you really want your Yankee news and want to be kept updated on what’s going on, that is really the place to be. Here is his post from earlier this evening about how baseball really should have been focusing on the positive news this off season instead of now being bogged down by all this steroid talk.

You have to wonder whether Bud Selig is still so pleased with himself for getting George Mitchell to investigate the use of performance enhancing drugs in baseball.

I’m trying to figure out how looking into the past will help the game now or in the future. Thanks to this investigation, baseball is all tied up by Congress, the IRS, the FBI, assorted lawyers, weepy trainers and preachy columnists wringing their hands.

The Hall of Fame has been dragged into the muck and the 2008 season is headed that way. Andy Pettitte is now scheduled to appear before Congress on Feb. 13, a day before he reports to Tampa.

For what? Selig would have been much better off having Mitchell simply investigate the testing program and come with ideas to improve it. The Mitchell Report should have ended there. Now Selig has created a world where grandstanding Congressmen will try and get teammates to rat on each other before a live television audience. I didn’t need to see Rusty Hardin in action, thanks anyway Mr. Commissioner.

We should be reading about Joba Chamberlain and Jacoby Ellsbury, two Native American kids who will be center stage in the game’s biggest rivalry. Or hearing tales of the old days from Goose Gossage. Or trying to guess when Ken Griffey Jr. will hit his 600th home run.

Instead we get lawyers, hearings, charges and counter-charges. For what? I get it, a lot of players cheated. I knew that before. Stop telling us, just fix it. Give us back baseball.

Umm… What Happened?

Chris Matthews on MSNBC is still trying to figure out what just happened tonight. What underlying factor played a role in all of these polls being incorrect and not just by a few points here or there, but 10-15 points. Was it race that played a factor where a predominantly White state told pollsters they would support Obama but when they went in to vote… they, as I had originally thought, that Americans just are not ready to support an Black man…

Congratulations to the Clinton camp who have certainly found a second wind early on where it seemed like she was dead in the water. I am certain this puts the African American vote in South Carolina up in the air whether they will go back to supporting the Clintons or can they support “one of their own”.

Now there are talks about a union nomination that Obama was supposed to get from Nevada is being put on hold which could have devastating repercussions to the campaign but as we found out tonight, it is way to early to announce anything. As of today, less than one half of one percent of the American electorate has voted… why not give the other people some say as well before jump on a nominee.

P.S. up to day four now on the MIA amigo

New Hampshire

So the early result from the very first voting in New Hampshire were in early morning. It’s from this little town with 17 registered voters that always vote at midnight and have this tendency to be quite accurate in predicting the eventual nominees from both parties. Obama and McCain pick up early momentum by winning that town’s primary for their parties. Meanwhile for the rest of the state, primaries close about 8 PM tonight I think, so look forward to tonight for what I am expecting to be another Obama victory (hopefully)… 2/2 would be nice to start a campaign, don’t you think?

Meanwhile, I still have not heard from my friend overseas and we are up to the 3rd day now… official counter will be up shortly somewhere.

P.S. What a joke yesterday’s Roger Clemens press conference was. McNamee seemed like a mentally unstable person at the moment and how cheap did Clemens look recording the phone call without letting the other side know? Either way, not like he got any new information or got McNamee to admit he lied or anything… what a total waste.

Weekend Wrap Up

Let me quickly get this one out of the way. Nothing new was revealed from the Roger Clemens – 60 Minutes interview, really what a waste. Probably just wait a couple of weeks for the congressional thing to see what comes out of it but Clemens continues to deny things and McNabee has gone into hiding. Somebody is wrong here but I was shocked to hear Clemens say he had never heard of Andy Pettitte doing anything. It is just so hard to know who is telling the truth nowadays.

Now back to the good stuff. I went 1/2 yesterday and even though I got both correct today, the two games today seemed to be opposite of what I expected.

The Giants seemed to thoroughly dominate the Bucs right from the start. Eli Manning played a well controlled game (185 yards, 2 TDs) and got plenty of help from his defense as well. This game probably saves Coughlin his job and might even secure the extension. Huge game next week now in Dallas, I probably would have picked Dallas without a doubt but momentum can be a huge thing going for the Giants right now.

Norv Turner validated tonight why he was brought here to coach a team that went 14-2 last year by finally winning a playoff game for the first time in 13 years. The Titans pretty much owned the first half on both sides of the ball that included two drives of 60+ yards but only 6-0 and that ended up costing them the game. Holding LT to only 6 yards in the first half and only 42 for the game but his crucial touchdown in the 4th secured the victory. Next stop: Indianapolis Colts. Good Luck.

Weekend in Review (score wise)
Predictions: Redskins 24-14, Jaguars 27-24, Giants 31-10, and Chargers 24-10
Actual: Seahawks 35-14, Jaguars 31-29, Giants 24-14, and Chargers 17-6

I will take a 3 for 4 week in the first week. Great match ups next week all around.

  • Holmgren goes to Green Bay to face the team he coached.
  • Giants and Cowboys are always an intriguing divisional matchup.
  • Colts/Chargers is a match up of two high powered offenses
  • Jags are as good as any team in the league right now and may have everything needed to stop the Patriots.

Before I leave, I’ll leave you all with this that AP put in the Seattle game recap for this week:

The Seahawks will travel to Green Bay next Saturday, a rematch of a 2004 wild-card game remembered for Matt Hasselbeck’s proclamation of “We want the ball and we’re going to score!” after the Seahawks won the overtime coin flip. Instead, Hasselbeck threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown.

I love playoff football.

A loving brown guy signing off…