Dynasties

I think it's kind of funny that folks have started comparing the 2007 champion Red Sox to the Boston group that won four years ago.
The fact of the matter is, this edition more resembles the 1975 Beantown version, even if those guys never won another pennant or even a single world series.
Unlike the 2004 team, this one is built for the future.
That they didn't win again gives you an idea of what can go wrong when all looks so rosy in the today.
The starting line up included 23 year old Fred Lynn and 22 year old Jim Rice.
They finished one-two in rookie of the year balloting and amazingly one and three in MVP voting that season.
Also in the starting line up:
23 year old outfielder Dwight Evans, 24 year old shortstop Rick Burleson and 25 year old DH Cecil Cooper.
23 year old Butch Hobson was waiting for a chance.
The only young pitcher of note, 25 year old Roger (Rogelio) Moret never came close to another 14-3 season.He went 6-9 the rest of his career.
The 2007 world series champions have a fine group 23 and under with pitching prospects to match.
Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury are both 23, so is game 4 winner Jon Lester.
Phenom Clay Buchholz is 22.Jonathon Papelbon and Daisuke Matzuzaka are only 26.
The ace of them all right now, Josh Beckett just 27.
With the money this team has and the way the game is played right now,it'll be hard to bet against these guys for some time to come.


As for the Yankees:
This is a very different situation that Joe Girardi walks into than the one that greeted Joe Torre.
The Yanks had been a wild card team the previous season under Buck Showalter.
The team's first playoff appearance in 14 years.
They hadn't won it all in 18 seasons.
Girardi inherits the job that now demands world series or bust.
The problem is that they will start his regime as a weak sister to the new dynasty.
Just another team in the battle for a playoff spot.
Fighting to retain free agents, saddled with aging veterans and inexperienced though promising young pitchers.
Girardi must also deal with Torre's shadow and the very real world series flags that fly in the soon to be distant past.

Denver Defense - Like A Rock

As we look ahead to the 2007 World Series there is one area that is difficult to compare.
On the surface, the Red Sox seem to have a rather decided edge in the starting pitching department.
The Rockies best (Jeff Francis) does not yet have the regular or post season pedigree of Sox opponent Josh Beckett.
Further down the line however, the match-ups seem even more in Boston's favor.
Don't let the numbers deceive you, there's a lot more than meets the eye.
First off, even though Coors Field now has the humidor,
Denver still has the light air.
Numbers can't be run up against each other in the usual way.

Defense is really difficult to quantify.
The Sabrematicians have tried but there doesn't seem to be a complete system that will tell you just how much guys with superior glovesmean to the fellows that make the pitches inning after inning.
It's amazing how Tom Glavine's E.R.A. went from 2.96 in his last season in Atlanta to 4.52 in his first with the Mets,than back to a respectable 3.60 when the Mets replaced the aging Mo Vaughn and Roberto Alomar and young Ty Wigginton in the infield.
Plus a porous outfield that just couldn't go get it.Bring on, Jose Reyes and David Wright in the infield and gold glove center fielder Mike Cameron and...Voila !!

The current edition of the Rockies have been built partly on a silent killer.
A team defense that rivals just about any in recent memory.
It's not just about not making errors or turning double plays.
It's about turning base hits into outs, and regular one out ground balls into inning ending, rally killing double plays.

The glue to all this has turned out to be rookie shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.
Keep an eye on the guy.
You will be amazed.
Few noticed in the lowest television rated NLCS in history.
That's about to change.
Can the Rockies continue one of the most amazing runs in baseball history and beat the Red Sox ?
I'm not sure, but as Diamondback infielder Tony Clark said:"
Sooner or later you have to admit that a team is not hot...they're good".

Football Losers, Baseball WInners, Hawks & Tiger

First let me point out that all we're all really looking for is consistency
It's not easy to pick 11 losers in the NFL and match that with another big 11 the following week.
You'd make a lot of money picking my losers.
I've been a better loser than any winner out there.
MONEY !!!

At least my Survivor picks have been perfect
and the Raiders are in first place !


Baseball playoffs, Remember this:
The Baseball playoffs are a crapshoot, starting with last year's champs.

The Cards mostly mediocre pitching staff got hot and ran the table.
The vaunted starting pitching of all those Braves teams managed only one world series championship.
The Oakland A's 'Bash Brothers" won one series.
The arrogant Mets were lucky in their only title.
Last season the Yankee hitters were being hailed as the new 'Murderers Row'.
They scored 8 runs to win game one of the division series but the Tigers held them to just six combined in the next three games
and swept them the rest of the way.

The Yankees won 97 games, The Tigers 95.
Twelve teams won more games than St Louis.
Of course the Cards had the most wins in baseball the season before, and where did that get them ?

Since the 2000 season there have been eleven teams win at least 100 games.
That includes the insane total of 116 run up by the 2001 Seattle Mariners.
Those eleven teams have run up ZERO world series titles.

Go Hawks Go.
Here are my props for the season with Shaun:

Sidney wins by more than 10 points over Jagr.
Hawks better and more exciting than the Habs.
Sergei Samsonov scores 20.
Both Shaun and Denis laughed at those last two.


Standing behind Tiger on the practise range was almost as good as getting Bobby Hull's autograph when I was 8 years old.

Sundays Just Got Better

I'm not sure when it happened.

Perhaps it started the day that Joe Namath made good on his promise.
It was the first football game I really remember seeing.
Okay, so I was cheering for the favoured Colts, it was still amazing.

Maybe It was when I sat wide eyed watching hi-lites of Bears running back and kick returner Gale Sayers, still the most exciting football player I have ever seen.

Maybe when I fell in love with the Raiders.
They won so often under John Madden but couldn't win the big one, year after year.
Why do you think Madden has the best winning percentage of all time but only one Super Bowl Championship ?

Perhaps it was the day the Raiders finally won, Happy Birthday to me, January 9th 1977. Oakland Raiders 32 Minnesota Vikings 14.

It could have been the day I stopped watching that Oilers-Bills game and went downstairs to watch my brother work on his car, surely this one was over.
When I returned Houston's lead was cut in half.
Who the heck is Frank Reich and how did he erase a 32 point deficit ?

I grew up a hockey nut.
At seven years old I could tell you every player and his number in the NHL.
Okay so there were only six teams but still, I was seven !

Baseball then crept into my world and even to this day, even with the Expos gone, I still love watching, get a chill watching a youngster pitch a no hitter.
Still play along with the catcher and watch closely how the pitcher and he set up hitters.

But my love for the NFL and the anticipation of the season, opening day and each subsequent Sunday has become king.
I can hang on until my Raiders get better.
I could even watch Washington vs Cleveland, if there were out of town scores

I AM READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL !

Sun Setting On Vick's Career ?

It certainly appears as though Michael Vick is going to jail.
The Atlanta Falcon quarterback has found out what most people in the know were already aware of.
When you are indicted by a U.S. Federal Grand Jury, you are in a world of hurt.
This isn’t about some scumbag politician trying to make a name for himself.
This is about justice.
This has also come at a bad time for Vick in what will be a battle at some time to resume his NFL career.
Many bad things have been done by NFL players to other human beings, and many such incidents have been swept under the collective rug.
It helped players believe they were above the law.
The NFL new commish laid down the NEW law on his way in and it has changed perception.
It’s no longer business as usual for BAD BOYS.
Makes you wonder about Vick’s future or even his present.
Is there any stipulation in the basic NFL player deal that would force the QB to pay back any part of his humungous up front money from the Falcons ?
And what of his return ?
This is no sure thing.
This isn’t an ex-con accountant given a second chance in a quiet office building downtown.
This is entertainment and if people won’t come see the dog killer no matter how talented he might be as an NFL quarterback, then he won’t be hired.
By any team in any league.

Just Give Me The Scores

Ahh, for when times were simpler.

It'll be 25 years on the air in Montreal come mid August and yes I'm feeling a little age.
The bones are not creeking though the hair has greyed quite a bit.
I haven't suddenly developed a paunch around the middle, I already had that.
It's how we gather and deliver the news and especially the news itself.
Once upon a time we waited by the ticker machine for all the news,
yes kiddies there was a time before computers and the internet.
There was big trouble for the idiot that left that machine off all night or forgot to put a new roll of paper in it.

Scores, standings and stats were pretty much what you needed to know.
A clear understanding of alphabet words were soon to come.
ACL, MCL and CBA amongst them.
I'm not a doctor or lawyer but have been forced to play one on the radio.

Shocking things can come at you when you least expect it.
I was in the press box talking with beatwriter Jeff Blair for just a moment one night in St Louis when all of a sudden I had to run back and help out Bobby Winkles on the broadcast because Moises Alou's ankle was hanging by a few tendons as he wailed in pain on the turf.
We were all surrounding a television set watching O.J.'s bronco while the Expos played a few feet away at the Big O.
What to say when an umpire dies in front of your eyes on opening day in Cincinnati.
One Hilton after another finding their way to the big house including Paris who I didn't have to talk about.

THE Expo season wiped out.
An entire campaign in the National Hockey League.

Now,
Football has gone to the dogs with Michael Vick, Baseball is Barry Bonds better homers by chemistry, a betting scandal in the NBA and don't get me started on the Tour De France.
All this nonsense of course has spawned 24 hour sports radio stations,
which of course means I get to be employed.

So if you will, please raise a glass with me as I toast:
O.J. Simpson, Todd Bertuzzi, John Rocker, Zinedine Zidane, Michael Vick, Rae Carruth, The Hiltons, Mike Tyson, Pete Rose, Kobe Bryant, Lawrence Phillips, Pacman Jones, Ron Artest, Ricky Williams and all their friends.

And now if you'll excuse me, I must go play golf.

Habs Didn't Need Souray

I hope Sheldon Souray spends his money well.
I hope life works out okay for the Alberta native, he seems like a decent enough guy.
Why the Canadiens made him a pair of free agent offers
and why they didn't trade him at the deadline last season is beyond me.
I don't believe too much in coaching x's and o's in the National Hockey League but it was clear that when teams carried the puck over the Habs blueline the last few years they made a beeline over to Souray's side of the ice and there was good reason why he was a minus hockey player.
He wasn't the one hurt in the minus department by his teammates,
it was the other way around.

In the 3rd, 4th or 5th year of Souray's contract, how many of those young defensemen will be better than Souray and would be taking away the ice time of the $27 million man.

I really do like the way Bob Gainey is going about the business of trying to put the Canadians back on the map.
Whether he's right about all those young defensemen he's collected for the very near future I can't tell you but it would be amazing if he's wrong about all of them.

This is not going to be a great hockey team this coming season.
Maybe not even the season after that but this has been a boring hockey team chasing it's own tail for a few years now.

The only way to stop the cycle is to build with youngsters and hope you're right.
Best of luck Bob.

Keeping busy includes an internet only baseball show I do for the folks at http://www.mcnsports.com/
we are currently on hiatus in the process of switching studios.
Please come and have a look.
I write a blog over there too.
Here's this weeks:


I hate to say I told you so, no wait a minute, that's a lie.
I love to say I told you so !
OK, so I'm not perfect, but not bad at all at the all star break as we look back on pre season predictions.
Every division winner I picked is either in first place (Red Sox, Angels, Mets, Brewers),
or, at the most, one game out in their respective divisions (Dodgers and Indians).

My National League wild card pick (Braves) stand only 2 games back of San Diego.

In the American, shame on me !
I let the Yankees money flash blind me instead of going with the League's best team last year (Tigers)
I thought the Yankees would paper over their pitching problems.Clearly Roger Clemens won't be enough.
I don't think the Yankees will be catching either the Red Sox or Tigers in the second half no matter how much they spendand that's fine with me.
I hate the way baseball is set up to allow money to cover tracks.
The Yankees in most years can spend their way past mistakes while if a team like the Brewers don't get it exactly right,it's basically tough luck.

In the National, there's several ways things can change.I think the Phillies will make a run, the Brewers to hold off the Cubs and the Dodgers to catch the Padres.

I don't think the Padres will hold on for the post season at all.Despite the 574 career victories that Greg Maddux and David Wells have run up, this is all about the BIG TWO.
These guys need a rhyming name.
Remember Spahn and Sain and pray for rain ?
Well how about Peavy and Young and then they're dung ?
nah, not with 574 career wins.hmm...
How 'bout Peavy and Young and then they're done ?
Peavy and Young and their song is sung ?
Peavy and Young and cough up a lung ?
Why the hell isn't there anything to rhyme with Peavy ?
Wait a minute !!!
Chris and Jake, the rest are fake.
Chris and Jake, through your heart with a stake,
the rest are fake, for goodness sake.

This all star break has been too long.PLAY BALL !

By the way.
History lesson time.
As for Spahn and Sain.
Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain.
They were teammates for six seasons, all with the Boston Braves before they moved to Milwaukee.
Both had four twenty win seasons in those six years but team success was really limited to one season.
Four 4th place finishes, a 3rd and the 1948 pennant before losing to Cleveland's last world series winner.