There are only a couple months of the year that please so many sports fans at the same time. First there is October, it’s the beginning of the NBA season, the MLB World Series, and both college football and the NFL are in full swing. Second there is of course March! For die-hard baseball fans, they have been waiting since October for Spring Training to start. March also brings us the beginning of NFL free agency, the NBA playoff chases tighten, and there is pure madness in NCAA basketball. Let’s take a look at each sport and what’s going down with each right now:

MLB Spring Training – How it is that baseball fans get so excited about “pre-season” games??? You would think that 160+ regular season games would be enough to satisfy fans, but that is where you would be wrong. This pre-season is a bit different for baseball this year because they have the bi-annual World Baseball Classic. The WBC has been successful in finding it’s little niche, but only because the Olympics axed baseball from the Games. So far the controversey surrounding Alex Rodriguez has been the talk of Spring Training. If you haven’t heard, Alex was NOT taking Tic Tacs when he was with the Texas Rangers back in 2001.

NFL Free Agency – Nothing reinforces your respect and admiration (or lack thereof) for professional athletes more than seeing them make millions and still demand more. So far the headlines are two free agents not available and one that is very available. Kurt Warner resigned with the Arizona Cardinals, Ray Lewis resigned with the Baltimore Ravens, and Terrell Owens was released by the Dallas Cowboys. You know the economy must be bad if even Owens is out of a job. He is the best wide reciever in NFL history, just ask him.

NBA Playoff Chases - There are really two halves to the NBA season for fans. The first half is where they solely cheer for their team to win. The second half is when fans start considering playoff seeding and not only cheer for their team to win, but also actively hope the teams in front of theirs loses. The Eastern Conference is already narrowed down to three teams: the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Orlando Magic, nobody else has a shot. Meanwhile in the West, much like every year, it’s anyone’s game. The Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs are on top, but they have both shown they are succeptible on the road. No teams are going to tank the season this year for a good lottery pick because there are hardly any good players declaring for the NBA Draft this year.    

NCAA March Madness – Conference Championship week is upon us , which is where many of the automatic berths for the NCAA Tournmanet will be determined. As it is rightfully called, “March Madness” is the perfect fourm for David to beat Goliath. With a 64-team field, mostly filled with “underdogs,” everybody will be looking for this year’s “feel good story.” The Tournmanet itself is a feel good story when you compare it to college football’s BCS. Here are a few tips while filling out your bracket:
-All four #1 seeds have never made it to the Final Four
-7-10 and 6-11 matchups are the most likely to have an upset
-The Big East is very overrated and
-If you are torn between two teams, decide which team’s mascot would win in a street fight.

As the playoffs inch closer and closer, there are many individuals players kicking it up a notch and leading their teams to victory. Three of our five grades this week were given for such performances. Who got an ‘F’ this week? Stick around and find out! 

It's a surprise Shaq hasn't broken more rims in his older age.

A- Shaq Attack - Ever since Shaquille O’Neal was traded to the Phoenix Suns he has struggled. The “Big Diesel” seemed to be running on empty and about ready for retirement. Many have suspected this past All-Star Game, where he was the co-MVP with Kobe Bryant, would be his last. Apparently Shaq has different plans, the Big Diesel has been running as efficiently as an economy car the past week! Last Friday Shaq scored 45 against the Toronto Raptors, the most points he’s scored in six years. The last time Shaq scored 45+ he sported a Los Angeles Lakers uniform. Shaq followed up his 45 with 33 points against the Lakers in a win on Sunday.  With Amar’e Stoudemire and Steve Nash out with injuries, the 37 year old Shaq is looking every bit like the dominant force he used to be.

B- Dwayne Wade’s Attack - The Miami Heat’s star Dwayne Wade said, “When I’m angry, I attack.” After taking two elbows right in the mouth from two separate New York Knicks players, Wade got angry and he attacked. Down fifteen in the fourth quarter, Wade fueled a 19-0 run for the Heat and left the Knicks in the rearview mirror. Wade scored 24 in the fourth quarter alone, which was seven more points than the Knicks combined. Another person that attacks when he’s mad is the Incredible Hulk, but that wouldn’t be a fitting nickname for Wade. For starters, Wade doesn’t wear green, making him have a partial appearance of the Hulk. Also, Wade does not play baseball, which means he doesn’t use steroids to have the physical makeup of the Hulk. We’ll just stick with calling him “Flash,” or “D-Wade.”

C- Nate Robinson’s “Shake N’ Bake” – For some reason, blame it on American culture, celebrities at sporting events usually garner more attention than the game itself. In last week’s matchup of the Indiana Pacers and the Kicks in New York, it was actor Will Ferrell that was hogging the camera. Ferrell and Knicks guard Nate Robinson kept shouting “Shake N’ Bake” toward each other, a famous line from one of Ferrell’s most popoular movie “Talladega Knights.” A fist pound with Ferrell and 41 points later, Robinson and the Knicks beat the Pacers in dramatic fashion. Robinson is an inspiration for little people everywhere, if that 5′9″ guy can do it then so can you!  

D- NBA Stimulus Package - Everybody is rolling out stimulus packages, not only is the government, but also the NBA. There was even a commercial on TV for Domino’s Pizza rolling out a stimulus package of cheap pizzas! The NBA has done a much better job of selling their stimulus package as a positive thing for the league. According to commisioner David Stern, the $200 million borrowed to distribute to teams was taken to strengthen the league. Stern is somewhat believable, if this was the NHL we’d have a lot harder time buying into it.  

F- ‘Sheed and his T’s- In classic “Technical Wallace” fashion, Detroit Piston ’s forward Rasheed Wallace was kicked out of another game because of his childlike behavior. After recieving one technical for arguing in a game against the New Orleans Hornets, Wallace got another technical for throwing a towel into the stands. His towel throwing wasn’t over though, he then grabbed another towel and threw it towards the ref. For some reason, we don’t beleive Wallace was just trying to be nice and give the ref a towel to wipe his brow. With those two technicals, Wallace has now received fourteen in the year, two shy of an automatic suspension. Wallace was fined $25,000 by the NBA for his actions, not Wallace’s first fine and surely not his last.

Alex Rodriguez used a banned substance while playing with the Rangers.

I have a friend, we’ll call him Alex to keep his name anonymous. Alex found a new job with a new company in which he was going to be earning more money. Let’s call his company “Rangers.” So Alex is working at Rangers and there is a lot of pressure, he wants to outperform his peers and really solidify himself as one of the best ever in his industry. Alex meets a friend who tells him about a secret potion that will increase his efficiency and of course his salary and leave no doubt that he’s better then his fellow employees. Alex obliges to take the potion and it does just as promised, his efficiency increased and he was able to find a new job paying him more money. We’ll call his new company “Yankees.” Once Alex gets to Yankees he decides that he doesn’t need the extra boost or the extra money anymore, so he quits taking the potion.

Something just doesn’t seem quite right about this story, why would Alex stop taking the potion when he started with Yankees? If you didn’t pick up on the subtle sarcasm, we are talking about Alex Rodriguez and his coming out of the juice closet. A-Rod did not come out on his own for obvious reasons, once you are a known steroids user you might as well walk around with a “Kick Me, I’m a Cheater” sign on your back. Not only that, but A-Rod just signed a rather large contract with the New York Yankees that might not have been offered had the Yankees known about his use of steroids. Actually, that is a bad example, we know the Yankees will sign anyone for insane amounts of money. The Yankees have give pinstripes to Jason Giambi, a known steroids user.

Alex Rodriguez says he's clean since going to New York, but some are now skeptical.

The news about A-Rod testing positive for steroids in 2003 leaked to Sports Illustrated last weekend. In ‘03 there were 104 players who tested positive for steroids, A-Rod was one of them. Although the tests were conducted by Major League Baseball, there was no punishment if you tested positive for a banned substance. Several questions have been raised about these tests. First, who are the other 103 players who tested positive? Second, how could MLB commissioner Bud Selig NOT know about these test results? Selig has acted like a parent who is oblivious to what his kids are doing throughout every steroids scandal. Selig’s latest statement on A-Rod is that he “shamed the game.” Oh really Bud? Knowing that players were using banned substances and not having penalties laid out and enforced seems to be just as shameful to me. What Selig is doing is just as shameful as NBA commissioner David Stern sweeping his Tim Donaghy refereeing scandal under the rug and acting like he had no idea such shenanigans were taking place.  

Back to A-Rod, what reason do we have to believe that his steroid use was just during his days with the Texas Rangers? It’s fair to say that the majority of sports athletes are not satisfied with a little when they can have a lot. Why else would a player sign a bigger contract with a bad team? Obviously winning isn’t their number one priority, it’s making money. The question becomes, should we put an asterisk on every player in MLB history that was a known steroids user? Should we blot their names out with white-out and deny them entrance to the Baseball Hall of Fame? It’s pretty fair to say that Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Alex Rodriguez will never be voted into the Hall of Fame, but why? These players simply played by the rules set out in front of them. If there was no punishment for taking a banned substance, then why wouldn’t a sleuth of players use them? MLB got themselves into this huge, gaping hole themselves and the first step to digging themselves out of it is to start being honest with themselves and the fans. Oh, and for those of you wondering what happened to my friend Alex, he had an affair with a blonde singer that had a huge gap between her friend teeth, divorced his wife, and never won best company in the industry since starting at Yankees…should have kept taking that potion I guess.

Back by popular demand, we bring you another edition of Weekly Rumors.  Once again we are going to spill the beans on all the things we’ve been hearing around the sports world. Take it or leave it, remember that these are just rumors. Don’t ask for the source, we won’t tell you, just know that we heard it at some point from someone, somewhere..out there…beneath the pale moonlight.

Arizona Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald is a inspiration to ball boys everywhere.

Larry Fitzgerald New Spokesman – Larry Fitzgerald has been the subject of many articles the past couple of weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. Fitzgerald got to rub shoulders with one of his childhood heroes when he was a teenager. The hero was Cris Carter, one of the greatest recievers in NFL history. Fitzgerald found himself in the fortunate situation of  rubbing shoulder because he was a ball boy for the Minnesota Vikings. Seeing an opportunity to get it’s name out there, the NAABB (National Associtation for the Advancement of Ball Boys) nabbed Fitzgerald as their new promoter. Be advised that the NAABB is in the process of changing it’s name to the NAABP (National Association for the Advancement of Ball People). The NAABB is sensitive to the matter that not all people that manage balls are boys, but also men, girls, and women.

NBA to Use Performance Pay – Many people were not blessed with the ability to be tall and play professional basketball. For those poeple, earning a paycheck is laregley based on performance. Being sympathetic to the hard working people of America, the players union of the NBA has approved a performance pay system for players. Scoring points will not be a point of emphasis, otherwise teams would fight amongst themselves for the ball and players on the Los Angeles Lakers would welcome trade offers for Kobe Bryant. Categories have been arranged into two groups, ones that will deduct pay and ones that will increase pay. Statisitcs that will dock players’ pay will be turnovers, missed shots, technical fouls, and flopping (nobody liked to see a grown man act like a wimpy school girl). Assists, blocks, steals, and field goals and not wearing headbands upside-down or backwards will result in a little extra compensation.

What does Groundhog Day have to do with sports? If MLB has anything to do with it, then it will be something.

Groundhog to Dictate Spring Training  -Punxsutawney Phil has quite the reputation, the only animal that can predict the length of winter based on if he can see his shadow or not. Starting this year, Phil will also decide the start of Major League Baseball’s Spring Training. Usually pitchers and catchers will report ro camp in mid-February, and the skill position players (You know??? Because pitchers and catchers don’t have skills..) report a week later. If Phil sees his shadow then the first players won’t report until mid-March, a welcome change to players wanting another month of vacation. MLB remained silent when questioned on this new decision, but skeptics believe it is related to MLB trying to reach out to animal activists groups by respecting their opinions (the animals of course).

Roger Clemens to be Found Innocent – The Roger Clemens steroids scandal has been extremely long and drawn out. There is so much incriminating evidence of Clemens’ actions, from medical papers to actually needles used to inject steroids into Clemens’ body. Through the hearings, Clemens has done nothing to paint a picture of innocence. He has lost a lot of fans and exposed them to the harsh reality of steroids in baseball. Barry Bonds could definitely lend a should to cry on and tell Roger, “it’s okay, I know how you feel man.” However, Clemens will be found innocent and this case will be dismissed. With exception to Pete Rose, there are only a handful of professional athletes that have been properly punished for foolish actions. This will be a case of “the bloddy glove doesn’t fit,” as Clemens walks away from the public eye like O.J. did, an “innocent” and free man.

2008 was hailed by ESPN as “the greatest year in sports.” It all comes down to the eyes of the beholder, I doubt the sports fans of the greater New England area, Los Angeles, or Seattle would share those same sentiments. It seems unlikely that a golfer and swimmer are in the top 3 sports stories, but that’s just what kind of year it was:

Top 3

Tiger Woods sinks a put to force an 18 hole playoff in the '08 U.S. Open

(1) New York Giants Impropapble Super Bowl Win - It was the most viewed Super Bowl ever, and it did not fail in delivering a spectacular show. The New England Patriots were heavy favorites as they attempted to be the first team to win 19 games in a season and finish undefeated (the ‘72 Dolphins still claim to be the only perfect team because they won the Super Bowl in their undefeated year). The only thing standing in their way was a mediocre New York Giants team that had to rally off consecutive wins on the road to get into the Playoffs and then win three straight on the road to get to the Super Bowl. In a season of “unbelievables,” the Giants victory was the top one. 

(2) Tiger Woods’ U.S. Open Victory – You don’t have to be a Tiger Woods fan, let alone a golf fan, to appreciate what Tiger did in the ‘08 U.S. Open. Tiger was having extremely noticeable pain in his knee and it was visibly apparent. He limped his way into an 18-hole playoff with Rocco Mediate after draining a birdie putt on the 72nd hole. After the 18-hole playoff, they were still tied, but Tiger snatched the win on the 91st hole. Tiger had season ending knee surgery after the tournament and news leaked that he was advised by doctors to not even play. Throw out Michael Jordan and his performance with the flu in the ‘97 Finals, what Tiger did was far more amazing. 

(3) Michael Phelps’ Historic Performance – Go back 8 years to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, how many swimming events were televised? I am guessing not many, and the amount of people that watched them was more or less the same. Enter Michael Phelps in 2004 and he changed the face of Olympic swimming, perhaps forever. Phelps started the Beijing Olympics off to an amazing start for the Americans with his 9 gold medals. Who would have thought that the track and field teams would be the ones to disappoint us…and that aside from basketball, swimming events would have been the most watched? I’ve got a feeling that fencing and handball will never get that popular. Take away skimpy bikinis and sand volleyball will plummet…

Honorable Mentions: Boston Celtics Beat Kobe, Lakers / Philadelphia Phillies Win the World Series

Seattle Sonics fans have lots of good memories, one of them will now be when the Sonics were in existence.

Bottom 3

(1) The Supersonics Exile from the NBA - Small markets beware! NBA Commissioner David Stern and just about every owner that is not a citizen in the community that he owns a team in do not care about your team. Forget about history, forget about the fans’ love for “their” team, if it isn’t making the owner or the NBA as much money as they think it should then they will sell it. What happened with the Seattle Supersonics is despicable, their owner sold the team and moved them to Oklahoma City. Most will argue, but I believe it all started with the community of Seattle choosing not to fund the building of a new arena. Why don’t the players pay for it instead of hard working citizens in Seattle anyway? Most of them aren’t millionaires because they are talented, it’s because they are big and tall, right? Someone get back to me with answers to my questions! 

(2) Plaxico and His Guns - From Super Bowl Champion to under arrest, Plaxico Burress had a up and down year to say the least. So Plaxico has a lot of guns, none of which he is licensed to have, what should he do with them? Hide them? Sell them for profit? Nah, Plaxico decided to take one with him to a club and shoot himself in the leg. This should be a lesson to him that he is not above the law, but so many NFL players have gotten off the hook lately (except Michael Vick) that I think Plaxico might get his hand slapped and dismissed. If Plaxico would have played Halo, he would know that shooting yourself with a shotgun is not good. 

(3) Coaching Carousels – Between the three major league sports (NFL, NBA, and MLB) there were over 30 coaches dismissed. The number balloons out even more if you add in collegiate sports. Two of the NFL’s latest dismissals are both surprising and sudden. The Denver Broncos fired Mike Shanahan, their two-time Super Bowl Champion coach that had been there nearing 20 years. The New York Jets fired Eric Mangini, who was a genius only a season ago and who’s players all seem to not be in agreeance with ownership over his dismissal. I have another job (besides a sports writer), if I don’t perform well then my boss doesn’t get fired. I would get a pay decrease or get fired. Shouldn’t players be held to the same standard? It’s their job to win isn’t it? I’ve yet to see a coach hit a baseball, catch a football, or make a 3-point basket. 

Honorable Mentions: UNC Falls Short in Final 4 / AFL Philadelphia Soul Win Arena Bowl but Lose Money

Whenever people compile their favorite sports movies you are almost certain to hear “Rudy,” “Hoosiers,” “Field of Dreams,” “Remember the Titans,” and even “Major League.” Rightfully so, those are all good movies, but there are so many other good movies that aren’t mentioned. Maybe it’s because we only classify movies about basketball, football, and baseball as “sports movies.” The “Rocky” movies are in a league of their own, and are replayed about every weekend on either TNT or TBS if you are interested. Without further ado, here are the top five sports movies (not in rank) that get no respect: 

1. The Sandlot (1993)

The boys in "The Sandlot" were not by any means the most athletic of in shape.

The film begins with Scotty Smalls moving into a new neighborhood and meeting a bunch of new friends while playing baseball everyday at the “Sandlot,” (a run down baseball field). This movie follows the stories of these 10-12 year old boys that summer, centering on the mysterious dog that lives over the left field fence. Any ball that goes into his territory is good as gone. The movie climaxes when they hit a baseball signed by Babe Ruth over the left field fence. The ball was owned by Scotty’s father, and Scotty had no idea who Babe Ruth was, he thought it was a girl who had signed the ball. Now the boys are forced to retrieve the ball, and try to get it back using various methods. The psycho mutated dog (which ends up being a figment of their imaginations), turns out to be a lovable pooch and ends up being their mascot during games. The most notable line you might have heard from this movie was in reference to how bad Scotty is at baseball when he starts playing with the boys, “You’re killing me Smalls!”

2. Forget Paris (1995)

If there ever was a sports chick flick, this is it. Billy Crystal stars as Mickey Gordon, an NBA referee who’s father has just died. His father wished to be buried in Paris so Mickey flies there with his father’s body which is lost on it’s way their. Mickey ends up waiting for days and falling in love with the airport attendant that helps him find his father’s body. This love story is up and down, which affects Mickey’s performance as a referee. During one of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s final games, Mickey ends up ejecting both rosters from the Lakers and Pistons, a trainer, head coach, and the guy who puts cheese on the nachos. One of the truly classic parts is when Mickey is driving his father-in-law to the doctor. Since they have nothing to talk about, his father-in-law starts naming stores they pass. Can’t say I haven’t been there…”You asked for it, you got it. Toyota!”

 3. Little Giants (1994)

The little Giants practice for their assumed beat down.

This may perhaps be the best peewee football movie ever, probably the only one ever at that. When Becky O’Shea is cut by her uncle from the local peewee football team, she decides to start her own team. Since league rules sanction only one team per city, they decide to have a playoff between the two teams to see who will represent the city. There is nothing more classic and cliche than the team of rejects and nerds being victorious over the jocks that are obviously inferior. This wouldn’t be a great movie without a twist in the plot that could change the movie. The twist here is when Becky falls in love with the starting quarterback and thinks that he will like her if she becomes a cheerleader instead. Oh no! Now the dorks chances of winning are cut in half. What will happen? We all know what will happen, but wouldn’t it be cool one of these times if a movie didn’t end the happy way we think it will? Oh yeah, that movie would have been “The Perfect Storm,” I think they killed everyone.

4. Cool Runnings (1993)

In what I’m sure is a very dramatized true story, a bunch of Jamaicans fall short of making it to the Summer Olympic Games, so they settle to try and make it to the ‘88 Winter Olympics Games. The sport that is going to take them there is bobsledding, and their coach is a retired cheater in the sport from the United States. While this movie goes above and beyond in making clever jokes not based on the bobsledders Jamaican accents, it at times can be a very inspirational movie. After watching this movie, I wished I could either be in the Olympics or be Jamaican. My mom convinced me neither was possible, so here I am as a sports writer. 

 5. The Karate Kid (1986)

Not many know karate, but we all know this kick!

Yes, karate is a sport, and Mr. Myiagi is a manipulative slave driver in the name of it. Everybody knows about “wax on, wax off,” and the famous kick the Daniel Larusso uses to win at the end of the movie, but I feel we just don’t respect this movie as a sports movie. Here are a couple things to watch for the next time you see this movie that will make it a little more memorable. Firstly, watch the part where Mr. Miyagi and Daniel are catching flies with chop sticks very carefully. Several times during the scene you can see the glare off of the string that the fly is attached to. Their fly catching is fraudulent. Secondly, watch how Daniel kisses his main squeeze Ali Mills at the sports park/arcade. He practically sucks her face off, great material to show kids on how not to kiss. And one last thing, try the rubbing hands technique Miyagi uses to help heal Daniel during the last tournament. It doesn’t work, I’ve tried many times, I guess I don’t have the Hollywood touch. 

Honorable Mentions: Teen Wolf, Angles in the Outfield, High School Musical (I got to do something to try and get the school girl demographics in my favor)

During my last round of golf for the year, I got to thinking about the changing seasons in weather and also in sports. In the middle of two double bogeys, I had a lot of time to think about something other than how poorly I was playing or else I would have went crazy. With every change of season comes a different variety of sports. As we say “goodbye” to baseball, golf and soccer (yeah, I know, most of us never said “hello” to soccer and thus are not in need of telling it “goodbye”), we have welcomed football and basketball. I would put hockey in there, but just like soccer, it’s just one of those sports that still can’t get better ratings during it’s playoffs than reruns of “Full House.”

The 2008 World Series was wet and wild.

The most recent World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays left a lot of fans feeling short changed. Mother Nature changed things quite a bit, as Philadelphia was hit with hard rain and snow storms. Game 5, which proved to be the series clincher, was suspended in the 6th inning for two days. You have to wonder how the series would have been different if the weather would have cooperated more. For a sport that starts it’s Spring training in February, it seems rather odd that is stretches it’s season into October. The weather conditions through the regular season stay fairly consistent, but their off-season is vastly different. There should be more controversy in the timetable the league has than the size of the strike zone every game.

While football has been in our midst since September, now is when we get into the nitty-gritty of both the NFL and college football. For the NFL, we start looking at the Playoffs and who is emerging as the teams to beat. For college football, the BCS standings continue to get shook up and Conference Championships start inching closer and closer. With every week that passes we weep that we are one more week closer to the end of football, it is truly America’s sport. The NBA, which also has a long season, can do as they please because they play indoors. NBA Commissioner David Stern did experiment with playing an outdoor game during the preseason at a tennis venue, but it was a little too chilly for some players. A few traded their Powerade for a cup of hot cocoa.

College basketball is also right around the corner, which really doesn’t pick up until after Christmas. With exception to the Inter-conference tournaments to start the season, you won’t see many competitive games until the beginning of January. Only a little over 100 schools compete in NCAA college football, well over 300 compete in NCAA basketball. There are enough cupcake college teams for every larger school to have their share of and rack up an easy 10 wins to start their season. You could conceivably not pay attention to college basketball until the Conference Tournaments in March and know enough to fill out a decent Final Four bracket. In the end though, it seems the secretary or office idiot who knows nothing about college basketball will always win.

This past week, the Pedowitz Report was released, which was an intensive look at refereeing in the NBA. Commissioner David Stern was desperate to renew the faith of his fans in the NBA after the Tim Donaghy betting scandal, so he hired a bunch of overpaid lawyers and paid them millions to do a report on the refereeing in the NBA. There are just a couple problems with Stern’s thinking on this one: the majority of basketball fans are already convinced that there are biases with refereeing in the NBA, and the minority are not going to waste time reading a 133 page report from some people paid by Stern to say what he wanted them to. What the Tim Donaghy scandal did was only validate what thousands of fans had already been thinking. The simple matter of fact is that whenever there is a questionable call that impacts a game, Tim Donaghy will pop into our heads kind of like E.T. does when we see Reese’s Pieces. (What? That doesn’t happen to you? Me neither…) 

Referees, often compared with zebras, are people too.

The problems in officiating are universal and run through all sports. We see shoddy officiating in the NFL, college sports, and even the Olympics. What always gets us is when after a game where a questionable call has been made we’re told that “the rules are open for interpretation.” I hate that! I want to throw my shoe at the T.V. when I here that! Rules are rules, aren’t they? So the rules are open for interpretation, which I’ve grown to be fine with, as long as their interpretation is consistent throughout the game. Right now, game 3 of the ALDS between the Los Angeles-Anaheim Angels and Boston Red Sox is on in the background and I heard the announcers say, “the strike zone seems bigger in this game then in the first two.” Okay, I’m fine with that, as long as that strike zone stays consistent. When watching basketball games and football games you can pretty much decide in the first few minutes whether the referees will let the players be more physical and let more things go. I’m fine with that too, a little street ball never hurt anyone. But, the problem we run into is that every referee is human, and humans have emotion. You think that when you yell profanities at referees that they aren’t affected emotionally by that. Referees have feelings too. We almost see referees as a by-standard to the game, just a zebra standing there, but they are every much a part of the game as the players and coaches.

Next time you watch a a college basketball game take notice to the team fouls. In college basketball there are two halves, after 7 team fouls in a half the other team gets to shoot “one-and-one,” meaning if they make the first free throw they get to attempt a second. After 10 team fouls in a half the other team gets two free throws. Since the fairness in college basketball is largely based on foul count and foul shots, you’ll see an interesting paradox once one team inches closer to 7 team fouls. The interesting paradox is that the other team all of a sudden will start fouling more to even it up so both teams get one-and-one at about the same time. Wait a second, or do the referees jut start calling more fouls on the other team? Think about it, it’s deep. I was attending a college basketball game when the team fouls were 7 on one team and 2 on the other. In the matter of minutes they were even at 7 and 7. In football you can see much of the same with holding calls. Honestly, holding can be called on about every play, so if the penalty yard disparity becomes too much, expect a few of those to be thrown in. After the NBA’s 133 page report on refereeing I can give you a two-word report on refereeing that will solve our problems, ‘USE ROBOTS!’ Think about it, robots have no emotion and if they can make video game so true to form than surely robots can do the job. There would be no biases or prejudices, unless the robots revolted and combined against us. Let’s just stick with what we have now, take the bad with the good, and accept the fact that referees are people like me and you…almost.

Before there were steroids in baseball, there were always curses. Sports fans have always been a superstitious bunch, especially baseball fans. Who else would think that if they all collectively turned their baseball caps inside out it would be good luck? Babe Ruth left the Boston Red Sox and fortune followed his new team, the Yankees. Instead of Red Sox fans saying, “Gees, we traded away perhaps the best player in baseball history, and that’s why we didn’t win after he left,” they start saying, “WE’RE CURSED! IT’S THE CURSE OF BABE RUTH!” The Chicago Cubs are also being followed by a curse, a curse of not winning the World Series in nearly a century (there is apparently a connection with a goat, which is too ludicrous to mention). That’s all Cubs fans talk about, their team is cursed, and perhaps this is the year it is broken. They have come so close so many times, but that darn curse has gotten the best of them. With such a loose definition of “curse,” it’s safe to say that just about half of the teams in Major League Baseball are cursed because they have not won a World Series. Manny Ramirez is cursed with being a jerk, Roger Clemens is cursed with not being able to tell the truth, and Cleveland Indians are cursed because of the “Major League” movies (don’t know what they are cursed with, but definitely cursed)

The Chicago Cubs brought themselves one step closer to the World Series this past weekend when they won the N.L. Central Division and clinched a spot in the Playoffs. Any team clinching their division, league, or winning the World Series has turned into a champagne bath for everyone, even the fans. As if it wasn’t a silly tradition to begin with, this year the players seemed to have been handed a pair of swimming goggles with their bottle of champagne to protect their eyes. It was quite the scene on Wrigley Field, the fans had hope in their eyes, the players were excited, I think I even saw a couple of players having a tickle fight on the pitcher’s mound. Amongst all the happy jives, I think they all forgot that they will have to go through the almost automatic American League Champion Los Angeles (of Anaheim) Angels. That team has got supernatural powers on their side, they have actual angels on their team helping them, I know because I saw the movie “Angels in the Outfield.”

There is only one league to coin a phrase that appeals to ALL sports fans. Whether you are a die-hard MLB baseball fan or you loathe baseball, both will be asking in September, “Is it October Yet?” You have to wonder why baseball carries over this far into the year anyway. The simple answer to this question is “money,” but wouldn’t it profit MLB to have fewer regular season games and more playoff games? With a month to go it is already clear cut who the two top teams in MLB are. The Wild Card races in both the American and National Leagues are still up in the air, but these races that have been going on since mid-season. Within the first 50 games or so it is pretty apparent who will contend and who won’t. For those who won’t contend, their attendance suffers the rest of the year. Last week the Florida Marlins and Atlanta Braves, both with no chance to make the post-season, played in front of a little over 500 fans. More people show up to little league games than that!

In the league’s current playoff format has 12 teams, the three division champions and one Wild Card team  comprise a 6-team playoff in each league. The separation between #1 to the Wild Card is so slim almost every year, which makes the playoffs all the more exciting. It really is anyone’s game to win, or lose. MLB has about the same amount of teams as the NBA, which has 16 teams in it’s playoff format, so why does MLB only have a 12-team playoff? Take the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA last year for example; they were essentially the #16 team in the playoffs yet they sold out every home playoff game. If the issue is money, seems to me that MLB would profit more from attendance and TV ratings perspectives to add two more teams to it’s playoff format and shorten it’s regular season if needs be. There are a lot of people that won’t watch a sport unless it’s in the post-season. I’m not saying that MLB needs to drag their post-season out for three months like the NBA, but extending it by an extra week to accommodate two more teams would be more than worth their while. Minnesota Twins fans everywhere would be thrilled, since their team always seems to find a way to back themselves out of the playoffs every year.