I always loved Greg Jennings...

Greg Jennings was the one guy who seemed like a role model.  Family guy, spiritual, never caught saying the wrong thing...  Oh wait, he joined the Vikings and that all went to crap.  First, he went after Aaron Rodgers.  I think it's pretty clear that Rodgers makes everybody around him better, and even James Jones, who is Jennings' child's godfather, didn't really know where Jennings' criticisms were coming from.  Now Jennings is complaining that Norv Turner's offense may be too complicated:  http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000345571/article/greg-jennings-norv-turners-offense-tough-to-grasp.

This is really funny to me.  Norv Turner is one of the worst head coaches in the history of the NFL, but also one of the best offensive coordinators.  He has been successful at every non-HC stop.  Greg Jennings apparently does not want to work at his craft because he is already complaining.  If he would just stop and look at the history of Turner as an OC, he would realize that he is probably in for a 17-20 YPC average this season.  Good luck GJ.

V. Stiviano

V. Stiviano, or whatever the hell her name is, is "devastated" that the conversation she recorded has been released.  There are two possibilities here: 1) She is lying and wanted to stick it to Donald Sterling, or 2) She is really upset that her gravy train has left the station.  Donald Sterling is a horrible human.  I grew up rooting for the Clippers, so I am aware of the depths of his depravity.  This whole situation is funny because I really believe that V. Stiviano, aka, a dozen other names, wanted to embarrass Donald Sterling, but didn't realize that she was screwing herself over in the whole deal.  Go away Sterling and V. Stiviano (aka, what's your name again?).

Barry Bonds

Prior to 1998, Barry Bonds was arguably the most complete player in baseball.  He was truly a 5-tool player.  Ken Griffey, Jr. was supposed to be great like Bonds, but injuries tanked the back half of his career.  This purpose of this post is to argue that Barry should be in the Hall of Fame despite the enormously long list of reasons his enshrinement would not be popular.  Unlike my partners in poor blogging, I am not a Giants fan.  I'm also not a Pirates fan.  I'm really not a Barry Bonds fan.  The guy was a complete ass to me once when I was 10 years old at a Dodger game.  In fact he is probably my second least favorite player of all time (Tom Candiotti will always hold that spot... a story for another time, perhaps).

So why should Barry Bonds be in the Hall of Fame despite being perhaps the most notorious cheater in the steroid era?  Here is the story and the simple reason he belongs in the HOF.  The consensus is that he started doing steroids some time following the 1998 season because he got pissy that Mark McGwire broke the single season home run record.  I won't get into the speculation on why he was mad, as there are a number of theories, some less savory than others.  He did steroids (which he claims was accidental... we aren't that stupid, are we?) and did things no player has ever done before. I understand the man cheated, but it is very interesting how easily many forget that Bonds either had 400 home runs, or nearly 400 home runs before he was ever expected of cheating.  He had also stolen 400 bases.  And played gold glove caliber defense.  And had a great eye at the plate.  Okay, I'll stop. You get the picture.  He was amazing.  And an a-hole.  His pre-steroid numbers placed him squarely as the best all around player of his generation, and probably the best all around hitter (when factoring in average, home runs, etc.).  Had he retired prior to 2000, he would have been a first ballot hall of famer... Well, except for the fact the the voters for the HOF stand on principles that don't make any sense a lot of the time.

As much as we all like to joke, about his ever-growing hat size, or call him "Barroid" Bonds, it doesn't change the fact that he belongs in the hall of fame because he was the best player of his generation with or without steroids.  Even if you ignore the back half of his career, the numbers (which mean everything in baseball) are indisputable.  Barry Bonds belongs in the baseball Hall of Fame.

Cheaters

So Michael Pineda was ejected tonight after he was found to have a shit ton of pine tar on his neck, that he later admitted to using so that he wouldn't throw errant pitches not so that he could cheat. first off that's like a steroid user saying he took them so that he could do sodoku puzzles quicker not because he wanted to cheat. But this is my point, the yankees in my opinion have slowly crept to #2 on my worst franchise in professional sports. Yes they have classy players (jeter, riveria- who i used to dislike both players, but the more i watch the more i appreciate both players), but they have continually spent billions of dollars on again sluggers, bad clubhouse guys and generally overrated players (swisher) in the quest for another world series. they have players like a-rod that they decided would be a good idea to give him a 300 million 10 year contract extension only to have him decline so drastically his ass can hardly round the bases anymore. the yanks and their fans have this snotty attitude with this smugness that makes me want to slap an endangered animal right in the nostril. yes. they are the most storied franchise in baseball in baseball if not ever. but holy shit, get over it jerk offs.they did three peat in the late '90's and first title in the new millennium but they did so by outspending the rest of the league almost two fold more than the next franchise. it was also before the rest of baseball figured out "moneyball" and sabermetrics and that spending the most money didn't necessarily guarantee a championship. Every time i see someone wearing a yankees hat and they live 4000 miles away i just laugh....WHY are you a yankees fan? i rooted for them for about a week during the middle of september in 2001 but that was about it. the way they "buy" stars, is so bad for the game. the way a star on a mid market to low market team finishes their arbitration years how many times have we said to ourselves "well the yankees are picking him up." fans are stunned when a player decides to remain with their team (Mauer). I hate the yankees. i hate that they have pinstripes. i wish no player that signs with them luck. i spite every one of them. i hate that they don't allow their players to have facial hair. i might be way off base but i just can't stand this team.

Pulling the levers

I've been trying to figure out for a few days what I have to say about Rick Adelman's retirement, in part because my first response when thinking about Adelman is kind of ridiculous (more on that in a minute), and in part because I really don't have great perspective on how to evaluate him.

So to begin with the latter point. Adelman was a player (I'm sure I knew that at one point, but I had forgotten) and coach for a long, long time. Great. The reason I lack perspective: I only really noticed him when he coached the Kings. Sure, I had a vague sense that he was somewhat effective after he left Sacramento, but I didn't pay that much attention. The only time I really closely followed the NBA was when Adelman was coaching the Kings, and not coincidentally, the team nearest me was most relevant. Yeah, yeah, I'm not a great fan and all that; basketball isn't at the top of my list of priorities. I'll watch it once in awhile, I can appreciate it, but I'm not as drawn to it as I am to baseball and football, perhaps because I didn't play it competitively (I mean, I was on a team and we tried to win, but I stunk, so I, at least, wasn't competitive in the sense of relevant--I was quick and could jump, but didn't really have any actual skills). But I did pay attention to Adelman's Kings.

And apparently that was the key: they were Adelman's Kings. That mattered, it seems. For some reason I've always thought he looked like Gentle Rosenburg, the Arquillian jeweler in Men in Black (and also, who knew there was a MiB wiki?!). When Rosenburg is in the morgue after being killed by the Bug, Agent J/"Dr. White" and Laurel Weaver find and press a button on his ear, and the face plate slides back to reveal the actual Arquillian inside his head, pulling levers to operate what's essentially a gigantic robot/mechanism. So maybe this isn't so ridiculous after all--but Adelman was really the Arquillian pulling the levers, and the team was the body (which means by extension the players were the pieces of the body--Chris Webber can be anything but the knees, Scot Pollard is obviously the hair, Vlade Divac the nose, Bobby Jackson the hands, let's make Doug Christie the vestigial tailbone, Jason Williams the eyes, Peja Stojakovic the lead feet...). Whatever, it worked, and I guess that's as good a way as any to remember a coach, and Adelman.

Albert Pujols

I am an unabashed supporter of Albert Pujols.  I continue to believe he is a clean athlete.  He is also a great community contributor and somebody who has embraced the concept that athletes, whether they like it or not, are role models to some children (and even some adults).  The man is the best pure hitter I've seen aside from Barry Bonds.  In fact, I think I'll write a Barry Bonds post right after this.  Albert Pujols just hit his 500th home run.  Congratulations Albert Pujols.  You are an awesome baseball player (and you even play some defense!).

Paying College Athletes

I'm just one a few million or so voices with an opinion, and considering only two people read this blog, very unlikely to be heard or stir any significant pots.  College athletes are attempting to unionize.  Most interesting is that this group of athletes is not asking for money, but for support beyond graduation in terms of medical coverage.  More importantly, these athletes are asking for protection of their scholarships against injuries, coaching changes, etc.  I firmly believe that these are legitimate concerns.  However, stipulations must be in place.  I will get to the concept of straight out paying players later.

Concern 1:  Athletes want medical coverage for injuries sustained playing sports at the University.  If one were to think about the scope of this request, it would make all Universities and Colleges go broke pretty quickly.  Athletes suffer a lot of injuries with effects that last a lifetime.  Academic institutions can't just be on the hook for a lifetime of medical bills.  However, if a student graduates, the University could perhaps offer coverage for maintenance of injury-related medical coverage until the former student is able to find gainful employment that provides health insurance.  Once health insurance is obtained via employment, the University is no longer responsible for continuation of medical coverage of that particular injury.  Bear in mind that this is likely very generous, as the students choose to play their sport of choice (and yes, for some the choice is due entirely to making money playing professionally).  They also have the choice to make the most of their education in order to support the medical consequences of choosing to be a college athlete.

Concern 2:  Protection of scholarships.  Universities should not continue to make scholarships one year contracts.  If a student is offered a scholarship coming out of high school and remains in good academic and legal standing within the University, that student should remain on scholarship.  This is pretty simple in my mind.  If the student suffers an injury that prevents contributing as an athlete, redistribute the duties of this student to provide service in other ways.  An example would be as a student assistant to an athletic team. This change would prevent students who do not have the means to pay for an education and rely on scholarship money to continue to get the educational opportunity they were promised when they entered the University.

Now on to the hot-button issue of paying players.  Recently, Shabazz Napier of UCONN stated that it is unfair that the Universities make money while he doesn't have enough to eat.  I'm going to go out on a pretty sturdy limb here and state that there is no way that Napier doesn't have enough to eat.  I went to a large public University (UC Berkeley).  Athletes (at least those on scholarship) were provided with three meals a day in the dorms.  The food sucked, but it was food, and there was no limit on how much a student could eat.  There's a reason students gain the Freshman 15, and it isn't typically because of beer.  It is mostly due to easy access to three meals a day of buffet-style food.

The second issue is the exploitation of the athlete for the financial benefit of the institution.  Athletic departments have a huge revenue stream, coupled to huge costs.  For example, Alabama pays nearly $9 million per year in tuition.  This is ~1/12 of their total revenue.  The rest of the money is distributed to recruiting and other necessary functions.  The final component, however, is coach salary.  We could debate the issue of coaches at public Universities being the highest paid public state employee IN THE ENTIRE STATE.  I feel this money should be redistributed to the University for educational purposes a little bit more. The point is:  who is really getting exploited and for the benefit of whom?  From my perspective, it appears that maybe the coach is exploiting the students for that huge salary.  Otherwise, the revenue generating sports are supporting the non-revenue generating.  Should we really get rid of college baseball because Johnny Manziel's jersey is being sold and he isn't make a liquid monetary profit?  I don't think so, although coherent arguments can be made to the contrary.

The final point, then the rant stops.  Athletes are getting paid.  They are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition, room, board, food, etc.  It is up to the individual athlete to choose to whether this is important, however, the concept that they are not getting paid anything is ridiculous.  I'm going to use a Cal alum as an example.  Joe Igber was a running back at Cal for all 4 years that I was a student.  He was a very good running back.  He was also an engineering student, and rumor had it that he had a near 4.0 GPA. Clearly he was a special dude with regards to his ability to handle a lot of work and time commitments. Once done with college, he was offered an NFL tryout and turned it down to pursue graduate school.  I'm pretty certain he is glad to not have potentially 6 figures in student loan debt.  In my mind, this is an acceptable form of payment.

Commish

With Bud Selig leaving his post as Major League Baseball Commissioner that he’s held for the since ’92 as acting commissioner and ’98 as commissioner, I will be stepping in to replace him. During his tenure he has helped bring about several expansion franchises, two of whom have won a total of 3 world series championships (Marlins 2, Arizona 1), introduced interleague play, realignment of leagues and divisions, the successful transfer of several franchises, was instrumental in starting the World Baseball Classic and even won the inaugural Bud Selig Award. But he also turned a blind eye during the steroid era and the atrocious ruling that the winning league of the all-star game for some reason wins homefield advantage during the world series. So as I enter my first year of being the commissioner of the second greatest sport on earth ( SJP Racing is first) I will be making these changes to the game and don’t give a shit about whether the owners want to or not.

Grant myself full power to make any changes I see fit. The only checks and balance is a three person panel that includes myself, and two people of my choosing.

Get rid of the designated hitter. I know it’s fun watching some bulked up past his prime slugger jack 35 homers, hit .230 and have 170 strikeouts but it’s terrible. American league clubs give long contracts to offensive players and though they are terrible during the end of it, it gives them a huge advantage over the national league when signing a player on the free agent market. A player should not be able to sit on his butt and every 3 innings get up swing the bat and than sit back down. Every other position player plays both sides…a DH should too.


Expand the strike zone, it should be from the knees to the top of the stomach. I'm over these strike zones that expand in the later innings, shrink in the first few and are called so tight a pitch a belt high fastball down in the middle of the plate is considered high.
 
Limit the trips to the mound. A catcher gets 3 visits to the mound and a coach gets 2 before a pitcher is done for the night. A catcher just goes out there to change signs, go over scenarios, calm the pitcher down etc etc. Dude, you are a professional baseball player, you can figure out that you need to back up home with a running on base and a ball hit to the outfield. Coaches just do pep talks, after 2 you’re night is done son!


Give fans the ability to upgrade their seats for a charge of 15-20 bucks after the 7^th inning. You’ll get a couple hundred thousand in extra revenue (that’s my guess) because you know after the 7^th half the fans leave and if it goes into extra innings. Just let them go watch the game. You want to beat traffic, well I’m going to be a true fan and stay still this is over jerk.


Get over the steroid era. It happened. We know a small percentage of the people that were caught, and a large chunk weren’t. Those players were the best of the era. The pitched against steroid users and they batted against steroid users. After the ’94 strike mlb attendance was extremely low, the fans weren’t excited…than a little something called the home run race between mcgwire and sosa lighted a fire back and really got people excited again. The fans knew something was up when a dudes forearms had 26 inch circumference. MLB has let players into the h.o.f that played when the league was segregated, the spit ball era, amphetamines, higher pitching mounds and there were no fences.


On that note- Mr. Pete Rose you are in the hall of fame.


Expand reply to involve calls on the bases and don’t limit it to coaches challenging 2 a game.


Any fan who runs onto the field gets a minimum 10 year ban from the ballpark, except after the game when he gets to clean the bathrooms


Players, get over some of these unwritten rules, it’s a little stupid. Except you rodriguez, everything you do is terrible.




Lastly hold umps accountable for personal grudges and egos they have. Don’t toss a coach or player for arguing one of your many terrible calls. Don’t get in THEIR face.

That’ll be it. Go Giants!! I mean go baseball!

Growing up disappointed until...... 2010

I have loved the giants (sfg not nyg) and the niners since the day i graced this planet with my birth in 1984. I have no real recollection of the glory years of the niners. my first real memories of the nfl were playing volleyball at my neighbors, who had cable television and a bigger tv, and the bud bowl. During the 1994-95 nfl season i was blessed with my very first "favorite sports team" championship. the niners absolutely demolished the san diego stupids. but after that....i had nothing. i was only 10 thinking i had it all. I was young, starting 4th grade and my football team had just won the super bowl. sometime shortly thereafter chico got a semi pro team and won a championship in their inaugural campaign and never won again. I wasn't as concerned with the outcome of the games as i was with persuading my brothers friend don to give me free ice cream, getting huge boxes of cracker jacks and trying to convince girls to go get pizza at a nearby pizza place. 2 of the 3 were successful. after that there was nothing. the sacramento kings flirted with a championship, should' have beaten the lakers but david stern, good riddance jerkoff, fixed that series so that the bigger market lakers would beat the cowtown kings. the only thing that kept me sane was the fact that the notre dame sissynannies had yet to win another championship (my hatred for notre dame will be a later post) and every year they dont is like a victory in my book. but back to the story at point, championships or lack there of. i moved to san diego in late '08 to the saddest city, cleveland might be worst. i never became a fan of the padres, going to games but usually rooting for past steroid users to hit homers off the padres staff ( or triples in jason giambi's case). but then came the 2010 season. something was different with this team. something felt "right." earlier in the year i went back to scottsdale to watch them play the cinncinnati reds during the preseason. one of the patients at work was a financial advisor to the padres owner and part of his pay, was 4 season tickets, field level in the owners box, where all the food and drinks were comped ( i would've taken the money). however late in the season when the giants were making a push late in the season, still 5 games back of the padres and about 12 games left in the season, he gave me and a fellow coworker 2 of his tickets vs the giants. we showed up had about 14 beers, began heckling padres fans and booing the padres first base case who managed to discreetly flip us off on multiple occasions. it was a great game, giants won 1-0 and johnathon sanchez pitched one of his very few good games in the major leagues, so while pulling closer in what ended in a padres 10 game losing streak and the giants making up 8 games in 15 we punched our ticket to the postseason. Next we beat the braves and i believe the reds to reach the world series against the texas dicknoses. during the previous year i had been dating a girl who had many horrible qualities, one of them being a sarah palin fanatic....., was graduating from college. so being the good boyfriend i was i skipped her graduation to go party in san francisco with friends during halloween weekend and watching the world series...which ultimately was the end of our relationship!!!! but during that weekend i had my first REAL experience with my favorite sports franchise winning a championship. from watching game 3 and starting a chant of "FUCK YOU BUSH!" at a bar with about 150 people after fox showed the bushes attending the game to listening to the last strikeout at the terminal at the san francisco airport with about 10 cops on segways outside the car listening as well, and than running through the airport screaming giants and getting the congratulatory calls from dodgers fans. only 2 years later they were back, almost losing two previous series and than dominating the tigers in the world series all along myself aging about 10 years due to the stress. 3 months later my niners were in the super bowl, losing to the baltimore ravens. the moral of the story. i have been spoiled when i look back with success from my favorite sports teams. cal came close (still have nightmares), kings have been close (still have nightmares), san francisco giants have won 2, niners (1 that i remember). so though i may be angry when my teams lose i can look back and say boom, we have championships and you don't.

Pulling a fast one

I spent 8 days last June in Louisville, KY. I worked during the day, but the evenings were mine, and largely devoted to bourbon, the NBA playoffs, and a drag show. I twice made my way to Louisville Slugger Field, home of the Cincinnati Reds's AAA affiliate, the Louisville Bats. Granted, the first time was really only to gorge myself on ribs and a beer sampler at Against the Grain, but the second visit involved an actual baseball game.

And Billy Hamilton.

By that point, Hamilton was already in the news, stealing bases like mad, and I wanted to see him play. I sort of did. He didn't have much chance to do anything interesting afield, and he never got on base. Instead, I was treated to a weak dribbler, a shallow pop-up, and a chopper back to the pitcher (and I think a strikeout). No times on base, no base-stealing opportunities. I realized it was only one game, and I shouldn't judge based on such a limited sample, but I checked his batting stats and yep, they pretty much seemed to fit what I'd seen. Disappointing. I didn't imagine him making it to the next level any time soon, if he was struggling that much in AAA. I left the ballpark disappointed, not sure we'd ever get to see the guy running around on national TV.

Fortunately, the Reds brought him up late in the year and he made it pretty clear he doesn't need to hit much to be an offensive factor. Jeff Sullivan has done a great job explaining and showing why that is--watch Molina stand up as Hamilton slides into 2nd--and why we should still be excited. As much as I admire guys like Albert Pujols, who is/was fantastic at everything, I love unconventional players who find success--R.A. Dickey, Ichiro Suzuki, Adam Dunn, these guys fascinate me, and I want Billy Hamilton around and doing the same.

*And also, the only other Billy Hamilton I can find was a base-stealer, too, and he's in the HoF, so there.

The annual "but the Eagles have Jeremy Maclin..." parade

Every year, Jeremy Maclin is going to be the next breakout WR star.  I once traded him for Matt Forte in my fantasy football league.  Forte was great... Maclin, hurt.  Once the whole "DeSean Jackson is a gang member" talk dies down, and focus shifts back to the Eagles, the commentary will be that the Eagles will be fine because they have Jeremy Maclin.

Jeremy Maclin is a nice, mediocre receiver.  He will give you 12-13 YPC.  However, he will not give you 1500 yards.  He won't give you 10-12 TD.  In fact, he is more likely to give you a hole at WR when he misses games.  Does anybody really think that he is going to set the world on fire coming off a major injury?  Not so much.  I haven't seen anything regarding Maclin yet this year, but I am predicting that it will happen.  It will happen as surely as Kirk Ferentz will be called a genius, and follow that proclamation with a 6-6 season.

*Correction:  Ashley Fox of ESPN suggested that Jackson was expendable IN PART because Maclin is coming back off an ACL surgery... She was quicker to the party than all the other "experts" who think Maclin is a #1 receiver.