FOX Sports gives you their top 10 of worst franchises in pro sports:
1. Pittsburgh Pirates
2. Kansas City Royals
3. Arizona Cardinals
4. Tampa Bay Rays
5. Detroit Lions
6. Boston Bruins
7. Minnesota Twins
8. Atlanta Hawks
9. Memphis Grizzlies
10. Los Angeles Clippers
Did you see Rick Ankiel nail two runners at third base last night? If you missed it, you can see the highlights here. Wow.
Oh, and he also homered in the game. Not a bad night.
Get a load of this from Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow. He had a little trouble with the word “shot.”
Warning: Adult language (albeit by accident). Don’t watch it if you’re easily offended.
Hat tip: Awful Announcing
It’s Opening Day. ‘Nuff said.
I may have made predictions before, but here are my predictions for this season.
NL East: NY Mets
NL Central: Chicago Cubs
NL West: Arizona Diamondbacks
NL Wildcard: Atlanta Braves
AL East: Boston Red Sox
AL Central: Detroit Tigers
AL West: Seattle Mariners
AL Wildcard: Cleveland Indians
NLDS: Mets over Cubs, D’backs over Braves
NLCS: Mets over D’backs
ALDS: Tigers over Mariners, Indians over Red Sox
ALCS: Tigers over Indians
World Series: Tigers over Mets
The best spring training facility in the world is no longer home to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yesterday the Dodgers played their final game at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla. The facility has been the Dodgers’ spring training home for 61 years.
I’m going to miss the place. At least I can say that my last experience there was an interesting one.
Tim Challies has an excellent interview with Ben Zobrist of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
I’ve interviewed a lot of Christian athletes, and must say that I’m quite impressed by the depth of what I see in Zobrist from this interview. Thanks to Tim for posting it.
I have absolutely no idea what’s happening with baseball and steroids these days. What’s going on with Clemens, Pettitte, etc.? Can someone enlighten me?
I do know that the Cardinals pitchers and catchers report tomorrow. Music to my ears.
Baseball owners have given Bud Selig a three-year contract extension.
Seriously? Good grief. Nobody in the world needs to be fired more than Bud Selig does.
Former major leaguer Doug Glanville has an interesting op-ed piece in today’s New York Times about steroids, aging and fear.
The newest round of Congressional hearings danced around Miguel Tejada, the remorse of baseball leadership and a lot of could haves, should haves, and might haves. Moving forward, we must openly address not only the drug issues plaguing the sports we love, but the culture of fear that shakes our society.
We’re scared of failure, aging, vulnerability, leaving too soon, being passed up — and in the quest to conquer these fears, we are inspired by those who do whatever it takes to rise above and beat these odds. We call it “drive” or “ambition,” but when doing “whatever it takes” leads us down the wrong road, it can erode our humanity. The game ends up playing us.
I’ve been a Glanville admirer ever since I read this article by Jayson Stark about the video game exploits of Glanville and Curt Schilling.
“Not enough attention is paid to the off-the-field motivators that create nasty on-field grudges,” Glanville revealed. “I believe video atrocities top the list. Curt Schilling assassinated my lovable Dwarf Paladin in EverQuest, happily smiling as his character stood in the safety of the town guards. That can create serious internal friction.”
Another great quote from Glanville:
“Schill has to live with what he has done,” Glanville said. “He can tell whatever story he wants, but the facts are the facts. Bingbong was set up, led to an untimely death in the prime of his life for no other reason than pure malice. Things like that do not go unavenged. Sometimes it spills out onto the field of play.”
The St. Louis Cardinals and Toronto Blue Jays have reportedly agreed to a Scott Rolen-Troy Glaus swap, pending the passing of physicals by both players.
Hat tip: Scott
Unless the St. Louis Cardinals do something dramatic by Opening Day — or a lot of somethings dramatic — their lineup is going to be one of the ugliest lineups I’ve seen in St. Louis in a long time.
Here’s the way it’s looking right now:
1B-Albert Pujols
2B-Adam Kennedy
3B-Scott Rolen
SS-Cesar Izturis/Brendan Ryan
LF-Chris Duncan
CF-Colby Rasmus/Rick Ankiel/Skip Schumaker
RF-Ankiel/Ryan Ludwick
C-Yadier Molina
Rotation: Adam Wainwright, Braden Looper, Joel Pineiro, Matt Clement, Anthony Reyes
Aside from Pujols, the infield is one huge question mark. Will Rolen still be with the team in April? What will his production be like? Up the middle is a nightmare. Kennedy and Izturis? That’s enough to throw me into a fit of convulsions.
The outfield could provide some pop with Duncan, Ankiel and Ludwick, but it’ll also lead the league in strikeouts — probably by far. It’d be great if Colby Rasmus would claim the center field job, but you certainly can’t expect him to tear it up as a rookie.
Wainwright has the makings of an ace, but after him there’s a bunch of nothing in the rotation.
Who in the world is going to get on base ahead of Pujols? He almost didn’t reach the 100 RBI mark this past season. With the players he’ll have around him, he’ll be fortunate to get there in 2008.
Can this team even win 75 games? I don’t see how. Unless things change, my prediction for the season is 74-88 and a fifth place finish.
In an exclusive interview with Sports Illustrated, Brian McNamee stands by his testimony that he injected Roger Clemens with steroids.
Clemens, of course, denies those allegations and has filed a defamation lawsuit against McNamee. In a press conference Monday, Clemens played a taped segment from a telephone conversation with McNamee — which, as far as I’m concerned, didn’t prove anything.
So, you’ve got two different versions here. Who do you believe, and why?
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) When former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell released his report Dec. 13, he identified 89 Major League Baseball players as users of illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
Included on that list are a few players who are professing Christians — most notably Andy Pettitte, Brian Roberts and Paul Byrd, among others.
That men of faith would be present in the Mitchell Report didn’t come as a surprise to Rick Horton, former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher and St. Louis area director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Read the rest of my story at BP Sports.
Also, be sure to check out what Joshua Cooley and Brad Locke had to say about the Mitchell Report.
Pete Rose says steroid users are making a mockery of the game of baseball.
Good grief. That’s like me accusing j razz of being too opinionated.
Interesting column by Jayson Stark about Andy Pettitte and HGH.
It’s getting more and more obvious to those who pay attention that HGH developed a reputation among athletes as some kind of miracle quick-healing potion. Do a little research. That theme comes up over and over.
We hear medical authorities tell us, just about daily, that that’s a myth. But it’s a myth that became part of the sporting culture. So clearly, it was that panicky desire to heal faster, to “get back on the field,” that fueled the HGH use of hundreds of athletes.
“I’m willing to say that in the case of just about every guy who used HGH,” one longtime baseball man told us recently, “it can almost always be traced to some kind of injury.”
So let’s ask you again: Is that “cheating”? Discuss.