Beantown Sports Guys

Worst commentator ever

After watching 1 game on the NFL Network, I was sold on the fact that Bryant Gumbel was the worst commentator ever.

After having seen every game on the NFL Network now (at least 6 now), I am even more convinced of this.

I don't mean he is the worst play by play guy, he is downright the worst commentator in any sport actually (ok, Tim McCarver is the worst, but I digress). This is tough, as Dan Dierdorf was previously my number 1 worst commentator, but he shot past him before the 1st quarter of the first game he called was over.

Gumbel is awful. He is so monotone, you don't know if he is calling a high school graduation or a funeral. It's terrible. Someone could break a 99 yard run and the inflection in his voice would still be nonexistent.

He constantly gets calls totally wrong. When the Raiders were punting tonight on 4th and 12 against the Chiefs, he said the "Raiders turned the ball over on downs".

He tries to sound like he knows football way too much. You can tell he doesn't, and it's painful to listen to. You know when your fiancée points out how awful it is it is already worse than you can imagine.

Trying to end this update on an almost decent note, Dick Vermeil is a great color commentator. He seems like he has been doing it for years, and he understands all aspects of the game. When his voice went out during the game last week, the NFL Network was very smart to bring Deion Sanders and Marshall Faulk up to the booth to help out. I felt bad for him because he couldn't go on, and it was tough listening to him, as he was straining with every word.

As bad as he was that one time, he was and always will be a thousand times better than Gumbel ever will be.

And sadly, the NFL Network will not realize this for quite some time.

NFL Rookie of the Year considerations?

It’s anyone’s guess who the Rookie of the Year will be in the NFL this year. This year more than any I can really remember, there have been major impacting rookies at position playing roles.

If you could subdivide it into Running Back Rookie of the Year, you’d have Reggie Bush, Maurice Jones-Drew, and Laurence Maroney all vying for the award. Some think Joseph Addai would be able to get some attention there, but he’s too inconsistent to be a real contender.

Along that same vein, if you had a Quarterback Rookie of the Year, you’d have Vince Young at the top, with Matt Leinart lagging behind. Jay Cutler wouldn’t even be mentioned, as going 0-2 just won’t even have your name on voters’ lips.

It would be the same with Wide Receivers, with Marques Colston outshining the field, and probably the closest to even getting any sort of votes might be Santonio Holmes.

But that isn’t how the voting works. They don’t even break it up into Offensive Rookie of the Year and Defensive Rookie of the Year. If that were the case, it would be dogfight between DeMeco Ryans and Devin Hester, even though Hester only has 5 solo tackles on the season. Ryans is leading the league in tackles and causes huge mismatches, while Hester has returned an NFL record 6 kickoffs for touchdowns. He single footedly beat St. Louis, Arizona, and the Giants. He has exceptional speed and has to always be accounted for in gameplans.

Has anyone noticed who isn’t on anyone’s ROTY list? How about #1 draft pick Mario Williams? Could it be because he isn’t what people thought he would be? Could it be because he’ll need a few years to develop? Or could it be for the same reasons I cited after the draft HERE? Simply because he came from a system where 3 out of the 4 defensive lineman were all drafted in the 1^st round. Or because many of his sacks were because his teammates were taking double teams on the other side of the line? I think he’ll be good, but he won’t be Jason Taylor good or even Julius Peppers good, in my opinion. Not on the Texans at least.

In the end, it comes down to what players have impacted their team more. Vince Young is almost a sure lock, simply because in his last 8 games, he is 6-2, and has beaten the likes of Indy, Philly, and Jacksonville. Just last week he ran for a 39 yard touchdown in overtime to deflate Texans.

Reggie Bush has had a few outstanding games, and has been consistent, but Drew Brees is the difference maker there. The same goes for Colston, and even though eh came out of the blue, I think you could have slid David Terrell in that slot and Brees would have had success with him. Colston has also been hurt a bit and that loses him votes for sure. Coupled with the fact that Bush will steal some votes from him as well, it looks like Young has it in the bag.

All the naysayers said Vince Young’s game wouldn’t translate over to the NFL, that he had to change his mechanics and how he throws the ball, that he couldn’t be a pocket passer, that he couldn’t win you games. All of them have been wrong. In fact, if I was a GM that had to choose between rookie Vince Young and veteran Michael Vick, I’d grab Young 9 out of 10 times without batting an eye. Maybe even 10 out of 10.

A Gatlin Gun(ner)

Earlier this month the Houston Texans worked out world record sprinter Justin Gatlin. Gatlin recently accepted an 8 year ban for testing positive for steroids during his illustrious sprinting career. The next logical step for him? The NFL.

Although he hasn't played football since the 10th grade, Gatlin has something you cannot teach: raw speed.

Probably the only two positions he could play are likely wide receiver and cornerback. If he has any hands whatsoever, he can play receiver. If he is serious about making this his livelihood, and puts everything he has into it physically and more importantly mentally, he could be something special.

I am not sure why he hasn't worked out for any other team, especially teams that are hurting for wideouts. Lord knows the Patriots should take a look at him, with an aging, albeit solid as a rock, Troy Brown, and unproven players in the likes of Jabar Gaffney and Chad Jackson. Don't get me wrong, I love both Gaffney and Jackson, I think they had wonderful collegiate careers and just need some time in the right scheme and system (especially Gaffney as he was previously in Houston), but talent is talent, and Bill Belichick is the master at recognizing talent, whether you've had football experience or not (ahem, Stephen Neal).

In the end, it doesn't hurt teams to bring him in on Tuesdays for the free agent try out and give him a look. It could be the best "free" free agent move they make that season.

Best way to end a game?

Is there anything in sports that is better than a Buzzer Beater? Perhaps. The walk-off hit or home run is awesome, as is a Field Goal that is flying through the air (or a pass) as time expires.

But the Buzzer Beater really has only a home in the NBA (or college hoops).

There is no buzzer in football or baseball, and although there is one in hockey, you can’t win on a shot from center ice if time expires while it’s traveling to the net. It’s just how it is.

Basketball is another animal entirely.

There is so much drama involved in the Buzzer Beater. You can’t beat that with a stick. Over the last few years, the NBA has added the backboard red border that lights up as soon as time expires. It helps the officials determine if the ball was out of the shooter’s hands in time. It also adds more drama to it. There is something very dramatic about a shot that is sailing through the air, the backboard lit up, and everyone just waiting for it to either drop through the hoop or bounce out.

Michael Jordan was the king of the Buzzer Beater, routinely tearing the hearts out of his opponents and their fans and dropping them on the floor.

This past Friday night, Paul Pierce was unceremoniously fouled beyond belief underneath the Nets basket by Vince Carter and the official called for a jump ball. Carter won the jump and the Nets proceeded to make a shot and go up by 1.

The Celts came up court, and with Jason Kidd in his face, Paul Pierce drilled a 17 foot fadeaway jumper as the buzzer sounded. You could see the life sucked out of the arena and the Nets fans, and quite the opposite emotion on the other side, as the Celtics stormed the court and even had Coach Doc Rivers pumping his fist.

It’s definitely one of the coolest, most final ways to win a game. I’ll never forget watching Robert Horry drain a last second buzzer beating 3 in what could be up there in one of the most amazing shots I’ve ever seen. Michael’s shot against the Cavaliers is still famous to this day, popping up in Gatorade commercials from time to time. And if it happened during this newer, fresher modern era and Christian Laettner took that last shot, the score board would have lit up much like it did for Pierce of Friday night. And that would have made that moment even more dramatic for the Dukies and traumatic for Rick Pitino and Kentucky. If that were even possible.

Dice-y situation

Last year when the Texas Tech Knights didn’t play up to their potential Bobby Knight gave back his yearly salary to the school. He said he felt like he stole it from them and didn’t deserve it.

Some might say he did deserve it, he did his job, he should be paid, but the sports world would be a much better place if it had a few more people like Bobby Knight.

I hate beating a dead horse, but Scott Boras is absolutely everything that is wrong in sports today. He jacks up the price of players he is shopping, without being reasonable, and asks for all sorts of concessions (such as not letting the player show his stuff for the team that wants him so much) that normal agents don’t ask for.

Scott Boras is drastically messing up Daisuke Matsuzaka’s life right now. It’s his dream to play in the United States, in Major League Baseball. It’s the Seibu Lions’ dream to let him explore that, while taking over $50 million from the Red Sox, and it’s Boston’s dream to not this player slip through the cracks.

But it’s Boras’ dream that is turning all of these dreams into nightmares.

Forgive me if I’m being a bit presumptuous in assuming that Dice-K isn’t the one behind all of this posturing, but it’s the nature of the beast that is Boras and it sticks of him to high heaven. He’s a leech, and would suck the lifeblood out of his own mother in order to survive. I heard today that he has not sent back a counter proposal to the Red Sox in over 10 days. It sounds like he is holding the Sox hostage here, knowing they won’t make the deadline and forcing them to play chicken until the last second.

Let’s get this straight: Boras wants the Sox to pay $15-18 million, while the Sox are interested in something in the vicinity of $7-9 million. Yes, Boras wants double. He wants double for someone that is unproven in the majors here in the States. He wants double for a pitcher that traditionally has never had a pitch count and could have a dead arm within 3 years. He wants double for someone he won’t even let come to Boston to meet with the Sox brass.

A little more about this deplorable agent you might not know. Boras won’t let teams have Eric Gagne, a stud closer from a few years back before he had two major arm surgeries, pitch for any teams so they can see he is back up to snuff. Not only that, but he wants a disgusting amount of money too, as if the teams are supposed to take a leap of faith with Boras.

Yes, he’s the same agent that took the Sox to the dry cleaners and signed J.D. Drew to a $70 million contract, at $15 million a year, $3 million more than it would have supposedly cost the Sox to keep beloved Johnny Damon.

It looks by all indications that Boras will win the war here and keep Dice-K in Japan. That’s sad, as Dice-K has no idea how manipulative Boras is and how that can actually hurt him. I’m not looking for the Sox to get any deal signing Dice-K, just reasonable value. It’s sad, but I’d hate to think D-Mat could figure out Boras isn’t the way to go all too late. If he’s smart he will dump his agent either today or tomorrow and snatch up a decent agent and do what it takes to get him in the big leagues.

Otherwise, he can have fun playing in Japan, where he doesn’t want to play any more, for a team that doesn’t want him anymore that will say goodbye to essentially a free $51.1 million.

Boras is scheduled to speak to the media in 15 minutes, but I have a feeling he'll be spewing copious amounts of verbal diarrhea that will attempt to make it look/seem like he is doing everything he can to get Dice-K into Boston, and how they aren't doing anything to meet them halfway. Not surprising.   

Merry Christmas to you too, Scott Boras.

Say it Taint so

In picking my dog for this week’s football office pool picks, Steve and I had no idea who to choose. We’re in 2^nd overall with a few weeks left, and have been pretty smart picking the right dogs, but this wasn’t a week where we had the answers. So we turned to those we know to see what they thought.

The three key matchups we looked at that had dog potential (dogs in our league must win, and if they do, you get the point spread as your points) were Oakland (an 11 dog to Cincy), Denver (a 7 ½ dog to San Diego), and New Orleans (a 6 ½ dog to Dallas).

Out of the gate, Oakland looked good to us because they have the #1 pass defense in the league and Cincy loves to throw, not to mention the #3 defense overall. Our problem with them is if they were down a quick 14 points they would have no shot at coming back because they were the 32^nd ranked offense, which is good for dead last in the league.

Denver needed a win over the Chargers to keep their playoff hopes alive, and we thought they had a very balanced team both offensively and defensively. But the Chargers are the Chargers and have been killing everyone lately. LaDainian Tomlinson has been killing teams left and right by himself.

New Orleans has been running a nice hot streak, but so has Dallas and their savior Tony Romo. Dallas has a great defense and explosive offense. New Orleans has a great offense and isn’t really known that much for their defense. We’ve been riding New Orleans for a while so this seemed like the pick to go for.

Except we were really high on Oakland for some reason. A voice in my head said to ask your friends, see what they think.

Flack said to go with Denver, then New Orleans, then Oakland. In fact, he said to forget Oakland.

James said to go with New Orleans, then Denver, then Oakland, and pointed out that Oakland’s defensive numbers (at least aerially) are inflated because they play in a run happy division. Well noted my friend.

Mark said to go with New Orleans, he had zero faith in the Raiders, so if I didn’t want to, Denver was a good pick too.

I asked Niffy the other day when I was in the shower who we should pick, and the conversation went something like this.

“Oakland is awful. They are terrible. Why are you even thinking of picking them?”

”Because they have a good defense.”

“But the Bengals have a really good offense.”

“True.”

“Denver is playing who?”

“San Diego.”

“Tomlinson will kill them.”

“What do you think about New Orleans?”, I asked, being our only dog remaining.

“I think you should go with them. They’re playing really well right now, and everyone has been licking Tony Romo’s taint for the last 4 weeks. Plus the Cowboys just barely won with a Field Goal last week. They are due to lose and he will have an awful game.”

Yes. She said taint. If you don’t know what it is, look it up on Wikipedia.

Anyways, everything she said was true. Oakland was awful, was down 14-0 fast and never had a shot. Tomlinson single handedly beat the Broncos while capturing the NFL record for touchdowns in one season at 29.

And finally, the Cowboys bent over and took it from the Saints. Romo was terrible, and was 3 for 8 at halftime. He had an awful game, and they beat down the ‘Boys.

She is a prophet. A visionary. A psychic. A chick that knows football. In the immortal words of Paris Hilton, “That’s hot.”

Maybe I should do this every week for my picks…   

 

Worst mistake for Dice-K? Choosing Boras as an agent

The Red Sox have reached the point of no return as far as signing Diosake Matzusaka. It sounds like agent Scott Boras is doing all he can to keep Dice-K from signing a reasonable deal, and he just may get his wise; however, if Dice-K is half as smart as he should be, he’d dump his agent a couple days before his signing deadline if he doesn’t have a deal, and take one of the deals the Sox have offered him, and here is why:

Scott Boras is using him as a pawn. If he lands an amazing deal, he could easily be “the” Japanese baseball player agent. This deal isn’t just about the money for Dice-K, this is for Boras’ future.

I’m not entirely sure of the contract language, as many different things are being reported, but supposedly one source says if Dice-K isn’t signed by the deadline his rights will be owned by the Red Sox for two years, preventing Boras from throwing him out there as a free agent of sorts. I’ve also heard that he would be a free agent immediately after this season, and could sign with any team.

Regardless of the rumors, Dice-K needs to sign this season. He’s not getting any younger, and more talent will be pouring our of Japan and other countries like the Dominican as each season passes. Teams don’t mind taking a shot on foreign players if they are proven. He has said openly he wants to play in the Majors, so this is his soonest/best shot at that right now.

I understand Boras is trying to get the Sox to offer a 3 year contract to him so he will be a free agent before he turns 30, and he’s trying to go above and beyond the money he should get right now. I am fine for agents working to help their clients get what they feel is deserved and what they should earn. I just can’t help but wonder if Dice-K knew what he got into when he signed Boras as an agent. And for that, I truly feel bad for him, especially if he is somehow convinced to play true hardball and sit the entire season out. Then that is a lose-lose-win situation, with Dice-K and the Sox losing, while Boras is the only winner.

I just hope he has advisors helping him out during all of this rather than just being in the spin zone with Boras.

No time for sleeping

When the Pats were getting ready to play the Detroit Lions last week, everyone called Bill Belichick the ultimate spin doctor, as he was telling his team all week that if they let their guard down for one minute the Lions could run all over them.

Not many people believed him, but they should have.

Belichick is not only the master motivator, but he could very well be a fortune teller too. No one believed the Lions could come into the Razor and beat us, but damnit they almost did. Penalties and turnovers almost did us in for a second straight week, only this time the refs didn’t do their best to make sure the other team won with their calls.

It shouldn’t really be surprising that any team beats any team on any given week. This NFL we are looking at defines the term parity. No other sport is like it. Look at the NBA, MLB, and NHL. You always have the same teams up top, the same teams on the bottom. It’s harder to pick games in the NFL from a gambling standpoint because on any given week, a team can overlook one team while the other just seizes the chance to win.

The NFL is the only league where the majority of the players come close to finishing school. Most players in the Majors never play college baseball, they drift in and out of the minors. The only reason why the NBA players aren’t spilling out of high school into the NBA is because of the new rules that prohibit that (sorry, they now have to go to a whopping 1 year of school). A lot of the European players drafted from the NHL play for their national teams. I’m not even sure they have college hockey anywhere other than the States.

And so, for this reason (among many others) the NFL displays parity to perfection. You have guys that have played in very intricate schemes and systems, some guys that were crazy nasty coming out of high school and highly recruited by a dozen big colleges. Most of the players in the NFL were the very best in their high school, and those that go off to college were the best out of at least 60 or 70 students to represent their school at the next level, otherwise they wouldn’t be starting collegiate games.

When you have talent like that, when you have young teams that lose and lose and lose, eventually they will get better. They have to. They learn a lot from each other, maybe at varying speeds, but they do, and that is when you have a team that is usually 3-13 jump up to being 7-9. That is a considerable jump when you take into account they are more than doubling their winning percentage from the previous season.

For this very reason, I’m not shocked the Lions almost beat the Pats. For one thing, the Lions had a little more than pride to play for at this point, as many of the guys on the team need to play their best to secure a spot on the team for next season. They also had nothing to lose, and that is dangerous in the NFL. Teams like that get a little creative and pull out all the Tom Foolery they can to trick the better team and score. It’s always fun to watch, except when it’s against your team. That is the reason why a lot of people just don’t get it when good teams have a tough time beating down the bottom of the barrel.

Because on any given Sunday, any team can win. It’s as simple as that.

In Theo We Trust

In Theo We Trust.

We’ve heard that a lot over the last few years, and when Theo was replaced with ‘Belichick’, we believed it and were validated by it by 3 Super Bowl wins. At this point, the Sox seem to lose a little more of their hometown warm and fuzzy identity, and all we can hope and pray is that Theo knows what he is doing.

Not offering Trot Nixon arbitration saddens me. He’s the original Dirt Dog: played hurt, gritted through the season, landed on the DL only when he had to, never took plays off, laid out for the ball, hustled on every play. A blue collar guy that Boston could relate to.

And now he is quite possibly gone.

By not offering Trot arbitration, it leads us to believe that the Sox are intent on overpaying J.D. Drew to take his spot in right field (at a price that we could have kept Johnny Damon, no less), and not trading Manny (unless Theo has in the works a trade to somehow get a stud outfielder like Andruw Jones, who is a free agent after this upcoming season).

The Drew thing doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to Sox fans. Drew’s numbers were similar to Trot’s, he was hurt as much if not more than Trot, and he isn’t a hometown guy like Trot. He is commanding an exorbitant salary, probably double of what Trot would have asked for. It’s pretty bad when Beantown already has a slew of nicknames for a guy that is only rumored to be on his way to Boston, including my two favorites “Nancy” Drew, and J.DL. Drew.

In all the years I have played fantasy baseball, I have never had J.D. Drew on one single team. I’ve averaged at least 3 teams a season, and thinking back, I don’t really recall Drew being in any rosters for any length of time. He’s a name I always remember because he was always on the wire. He’s just one of those guys, and unless he hits 10 home runs and drives in 20 before the Sox hit Fenway for their home opener (as they open on the road), I don’t see the Boston Faithful being too happy to hear his name over the P.A.

It doesn’t make sense to get rid of Manny for anyone less than a stellar hit (ala Andruw Jones) and a nasty prospect. I was even fine when I heard the Jake Peavy and Adrian Gonzalez rumor for Manny, because at the very least, if Theo swings that AND gets Jones in a trade, we could work that. He could even work a 3-way deal where we send the Braves Gonzalez (young, strong 1^st baseman who some compare favorably to Ryan Howard), and a handful of other strong prospects (they can take Pedroia for all I care and sign Loretta), while keeping Peavy. With Jones in the lineup, he’s not Manny, but he would help protect Ortiz. That combination of Jones and Peavy means we’d have even better pitching and a strong hitter to replace Manny. Miguel Tejada would be an option as well if the Orioles wanted to swap the Dominicans. That wouldn’t be too bad for either club either actually.

All in all, I don’t see Theo taking a bad deal to get rid of Manny. We have two years of him on the books, and two additional years as team options. I’d rather him sit on the bench and rot than give him away to another team for next to nothing. He’ll have to be traded most likely to an American League team, as he won’t want to learn all the pitchers in the National League, and I don’t blame him. All he needs to do is do right by Theo, keep it out of the papers, and ask for the trade. If he wants to be traded, Theo will do everything he can do make that happen (ala David Wells) but for a deal to be made it needs to be fair for all teams and people involved. Surely even someone like Manny could understand that, couldn’t he?

The one person I wouldn’t want to be in all of this is David Ortiz. Best friend of Manny Ramirez, he’s stuck in the middle, and reporters go straight to him for the scoop. He won’t put down Manny as a person or a player, so why dig Ortiz for that dirt? It’s a waste of time.

As a fan, I love Manny. He’s amazing to watch. He can go the other way with power, and when he goes into an 0 for 20 slump, you know he’ll snap out of it and hit 3 HRs in a game. He strikes fear in the hearts of all Yankee pitchers, and I don’t care what anyone says, he’s one of the best fielders on the Sox. He plays the Wall like no one else, he has a great highly underrated arm, and when he does hustle you’re excited for him. He has an infectious smile and is always goofing off in the dugout. Do I wish he wanted to stay in Boston? Sure, but no one knows the real reasons why he wants out, and people need to respect that. If he runs hot and cold on the subject or wanting to be traded, he is entitled to feel that way, isn’t he? Don’t we all have jobs where we just don’t know if we want to stay here for the long haul or see what else is out there, and at the same time the next day be perfectly content where we are? Of course.

So let Manny be Manny, whether it’s here in Boston or elsewhere. The only problem I have is when he doesn’t hustle and it costs the Sox, or when he wants copious days off late in the season with some “nagging” injury. Hey, if he is hurt, he is hurt, but if he’s faking it, that is lame.

In the end, I don’t see Manny going anywhere, and for Boston, I think that is a good thing. Maybe that will change mid-season during the trading deadline, or maybe he’ll have 35 HRs already by then and be mentioned as an MVP candidate and love Boston. Who knows, we’ll just have do ride the Ramirez Rollercoaster until it stops, wherever, and whenever that may be.