Another Reason to Hate Philly: Cheaters

As anyone who reads this site regularly knows, I loathe Philadelphia. I dislike the city, the teams and the fans. It is the worst city I have ever been to in my life, and I’ve been to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Toledo, Ohio and Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin among other horrendous places. Their fans are the loudest, most obnoxious and ill-informed inbreeds in the universe. There is even a website dedicated to the city and its teams sucking. Well we can now add a few more reasons why we dislike them, courtesy of the Cheatin’ Phillies and the idiocy of Bud Selig giving them an unfair edge.

The Phillies are stealing signs, and have been accused by the Rockies, Mets and Red Sox which lead to baseball giving them a warning. Where is the outrage from the national media? Where are the claims that the Phillies back-to-back NL pennants and World Series championship two years ago are now tainted and should have an asterisk next to them? Where is the moronic congressman calling for MLB to take away their trophies? Because when the Patriots were accused of spying on teams and stealing their signs, blowhards like Arlen Specter wasted tax payer money on pushing the NFL to investigate. Let me get this straight, in baseball it’s okay to steal signs but not to use steroids. In the NFL, it’s okay to use steroids but not okay to steal signs. Got it. That makes about as much sense as putting Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher in a movie and then wondering why it bombs.

There are those who believe stealing signs is a part of baseball, however there is a big difference between watching a base coach for clues and having your bullpen coach using binoculars and calling the dugout phone to relay the signals. That is flat out, blatant misuse of the phone and using binoculars. The Phillies should face a huge fine and draft sanctions. There is no way to defend what they did. Absolutely none. It is CHEATING. While I did not ever root for the Phillies in the past, I used to respect them as a talented team that played hard. That respect took a major hit with these accusations.

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In addition to that advantage that the Phillies are getting by cheating, they are being given an unfair advantage by the league Commissioner. The Phillies are supposed to play an interleague series in Toronto during the same dates that the G20 summit is taking place in Toronto. The city of Toronto wants to move the baseball games due to concerns for security and traffic in the city. First, when was the G20 scheduled? I have to believe it has been planned for quite a while, so why did baseball schedule a series in town in the first place? That’s a minor brain fart. The bigger problem is the solution from MLB: to move the games to Philadelphia. Not only is it punishment for the Blue Jays to have to spend extra time in that horrific city, but the Phillies will now play 84 home games compared to 81 for every other team in baseball. And for a team playing in a division race that could come down to the wire against the Marlins, Mets, Nationals (yes, they could be for real) or Braves, those extra home games could be a difference maker.

Why wouldn’t Bud Selig move the game to a neutral site? Buffalo? Or New York? Or Baltimore? Or Detroit? MLB has used other team stadiums for neutral site games in the past – the Cubs and Astros played at Miller Park in Milwaukee as a result of Hurricane Ike in 2008.

The Phillies are talented enough to win without the help of the Commissioner or cheating, so it’s really just more reasons to hate the already easily hated franchise/city/fans.

Hitting the Links - Why Am I Still Surprised By This Stuff?

Really? You get drunk and try to kick your husband and fall into a store window. Yet the owner of the shop is to blame for not having strong enough glass in his front window to withstand your drunk ass? Somewhere the lady who won the lawsuit against McDonald’s for serving her hot coffee is nodding vigorously.

This just seems like a bad episode of Las Vegas or something. How in the hell does a guy just “con” a casino into giving him a $200,000 advance? And they cannot keep him in jail because the warrants are under his false name and not his real name? Then again, I was on jury duty for a couple days last week and there were more than a handful of people that were allowed to be dismissed because they didn’t speak any English. Somehow they were able to get a license/citizenship without being able to speak the language, or they pulled a Sammy Sosa and “pretended” they didn’t understand it.

A fan running on the field in Philadelphia got tased last night (here’s the video of the guy getting tased). Some people are all up in arms about it. Let’s see, you know it’s wrong, and we have historical events like the guy who stabbed Monica Seles or the drunken inbreeds in Chicago that beat up the Royals first base coach. And you have a problem with them tasing a guy not knowing whether he has a weapon? If you do something that stupid, you deserve to be treated like you are stupid.

A guy on the Virginia lacrosse team was charged with the murder of a girl on the women’s lacrosse team. That’s some scary stuff. The strange coincidence that has no real bearing on anything is that he went to prep school with a bunch of the guys who were accused in the Duke lacrosse scandal.

Kobe Bryant might be a great closer, but he does not have a very good public relations team. What was he possibly thinking for this “white hot” photo shoot? I mean, I don’t understand art – I never have and never will – but this just seems weird. Although the best part is the quote from Lamar Odom: “And I married Khloe Kardhasian only a month after meeting her so I don't have much room to talk. But seriously, what are you doing?”

Jesse Jackson has to jump into the fray with a letter to Bud Selig about the new immigration legislation in Arizona. Why isn’t this waste of space writing letters to the NFL? Or the NHL? Or the NBA? And why does Bud Selig have to suddenly get involved in a political issue? Jesse Jackson just wants to get his face on television or in the papers and he seems to make matters much worse than they were before he got involved.

Overractions!

Chill out people. Seriously. Everyone and everything today is not the best or the worst. And things that happen in one game do not outweight an entire career. It reminds me of this scene from Austin Powers:


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Peyton Manning’s legacy has not been permanently altered because of the Super Bowl. Yes, it does halt the “greatest of all-time” talk, but he’s still among the best to ever play the game. Dan Shaughnessy (the d-bag writer for the Boston Globe with a face for newspaper) decided before the Super Bowl that Manning was better than Tom Brady. Then after the game he completely flopped to the other side. Way to stick to your guns Dan. The only thing that changes after the loss? He’ll never have the perfect Super Bowl record that Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw have. He’s still on pace to set every passing record (other than interceptions) that Favre currently holds. He still has more MVP awards than anyone in the history of the game. He has more titles than Marino, Tarkenton and Jim Kelly combined, and the same amount as Favre. And he’s now set himself up to potentially have a great “Eff You” season of redemption next year.

So while the 2004 Peyton showed up for one big game, let’s relax on the “Peyton can’t win the big game” talk. Let’s keep in mind the fact that he inspired two of the riskiest and “on paper dumbest” decisions by opponents during this season with the sole goal of those decisions to keep the ball out of his hands. 3-time Super Bowl Champion Bill Belichick went for that fateful 4th down to play keep away from Manning. And in the biggest game of his life, Sean Payton tried an onside kick (the first ever not during the fourth quarter of a Super Bowl) with the same goal – to keep Manning off the field. Just because Marissa Miller did not make the cover of the swimsuit issue does not mean she’s not bringing the heat.

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Today another nasty snow storm has hit the east coast (and one also hit the midwest yesterday). If you just relied on the news coverage around here for the past 48 hours, you would have thought the world was going to end. The news casters were crying about how epic this storm was going to be and how everything was going to be a disaster. Listen, it’s the second big storm to hit Manhattan this year, and the second storm to hit the DC area in two weeks. It’s February – the heart of winter. Why are we surprised by snow storms? Why does the news act like the city has no idea how to handle the snow? This isn’t California or Texas. It’s the Northeast, the same place where they coined the term “N’oreaster” to describe the storms that come up the coast. So settle down and go grab a shovel. I’m going to go look for jobs in San Diego….or bartending in the Virgin Islands.

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The Milwaukee Brewers are going to build a statue of Proud to Be Yer Bud Selig to put next to Robin Yount and Hank Aaron outside of Miller Park. I have an idea for the pose they should use!! (see photo) I’m not sure there is a more polarizing figure in baseball. On the positive side of the ledger, he brought the Brewers to Milwaukee, kept them there, and brought in the wild card and interleague play. On the negative side, he forced out Faye Vincent, keeps Pete Rose out of the Hall of Fame, and while other sports were implementing salary caps and revenue sharing he allowed teams to spend 6-7 times more than other teams ensuring parity will never be a factor in baseball. And don’t forget the whole charade where he supposedly passed power of the Brewers over to his daughter while he was the “acting” commissioner. And the tremendously poor results by the team during his tenure. Once he finally sold the team to someone with deeper pockets, the team found some success and has a solid young base to compete in the future.

Are we overreacting to build the guy a statue? Especially before we build one for Paul Molitor? Molitor and Yount were the soul of the franchise for almost 15 years before Sal Bando (a Selig guy) ran him out of town to Toronto where he won his title and his World Series MVP. Molitor is in the baseball Hall of Fame as a Brewer and he doesn’t have a statue? Selig might be the Kristin Cavallari of baseball – some people love her, some people hate her, but very few people are on the fence. And I’m guessing Orange County has no intentions of building a statue of Kristin. And the latest rumor has Kristin dating Mark Sanchez now and if he had been able to beat the Colts, there’s a pretty good chance Jersey would have built a statue of the former SC quarterback.

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And finally, one story where it might be right to overreact: the NJ Nets. They are 4-47. Four wins in 51 games. You would think with playing a team on a back-to-back night, or at the end of a roadtrip, or a team that was out to late at the Hustler Club in Manhattan the night before the Nets would be able to do better than winning less than once every ten games. I was part of a high school team that went 2-19, so I feel their pain. And like the Nets, while there was a talent gap between us and every other team, a big part of the problem was the coaching staff (proven by the fact that we had a new coach the following year and went 12-9). The Nets coaching staff has been a disaster, as they fired Lawrence Frank early in the year and made Kiki Vandeweghe the coach, despite him never having a coaching gig prior to the Nets. To bridge the gap, they brought in veteran coach Del Harris to mentor Kiki on the job. That went so well that Harris quit about a month and a half into the gig.

The NBA record for futility was 9 wins by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1972-73. That team actually started 4-47 as well, at which point they fired their coach, Roy Rubin, and replaced him with Kevin Loughery. I guess it was an improvement as Loughery went 5-26. Those five wins came in a 7 game stretch, before losing their final 11 games of the season. That’s a painful record that the Nets are chasing. Get fired up Brooklyn – these are your Nets in 2012!!!

All-Star Mockery in the NBA & NFL

Quick note before we get to today’s post. You know that when you start typing things into Google, it automatically suggests topics which are the “most searched” that start with the letters or words you type in. If you want to kill some time, just type in “Why Does” and check out what are the most searched topics. That’s some crazy stuff. Or my personal favorite is type in “Why Can’t” and the most searched topic is “Why Can’t I Own a Canadian” – awesome. I mean, it is a good question.

Do you know what the biggest false stat used when people argue about which player is better? Player A is a 5-time all-star and Player B is only a 3-time all-star. All-Star games and the voting process is a complete joke and a total sham. I’m not even going to waste my time talking about the joke that is the baseball all-star game and deciding the home field advantage in the World Series in this article. Ever since “Proud To Be Your” Bud Selig threw up his hands (literally) at the 2002 game, the baseball all-star game has been a lightning rod of criticism. Instead, I want to focus on the ridiculous voting process used in the NBA and the substitution effect in the NFL, resulting in a very deflated value to being an “all-star” in those sports.

NBA Highlights Has-Beens

Since the 1970’s the NBA has used 100% fan voting to determine the All-Star teams, and the league sees it as a great way to engage their fans and allow them to have a say in who they want to see at their showcase event. It’s a great theory. Then again, at one point in time, “The World Is Flat” was a viable theory. It turns the game into a popularity contest and not a showcase of the best talent or brightest stars. I mean Miley Cyrus will win some “People’s Choice” music awards because young kids text in votes, but no one will make the argument it shows she is the most talented musician out there.

The best example for why the system has run it’s time and needs to be changed is taking place this year. Two aging superstars who have barely played are currently in position to start in this season’s NBA All-Star game, Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson. McGrady has played in 6 games this season and the Rockets have benched him while exploring trading options. Iverson was signed in the off-season by the Grizzlies who promptly cut him 3 games into the season because his selfishness didn’t fit with their young and talented team. (We've already covered the Demise of The Answer before). Yet, that somehow is enough for the fans to vote for them to start in the All-Star games.

The players that are hurt by this embarrassment are the young stars who are having great seasons and will not get enough votes to warrant a spot. Brandon Roy is 7th in the western conference in scoring and 10th in voting among guards in the conference. Zach Randolph, Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo are all among the top 20 in the conference in scoring for the up and coming Grizzlies, yet none of the three are listed among the top 11 in votes for the All-Star game. That’s because people still think of the Grizzlies when they were in Vancouver with Bryant “Big Country” Reeves or when they gave away Pau Gasol to the Lakers a few years ago.

Thankfully there is still time left and hopefully McGrady will get passed by Steve Nash or Chris Paul.

Who is the NFL Showcasing?

As for the NFL, prior to 1995, the Pro Bowl was determined by voting from the players and coaches. In 1995 the system was adjusted to incorporate the fans vote, splitting the votes 1/3 each for the fans, coaches and players. So my problem isn’t necessarily with the voting process in the NFL. I have a problem with the number of players that have to back out of the game due to injury, disinterest, or laziness. Again, it is the players’ prerogative to decide that they do not want a free trip to Hawaii (or Miami this year) to recuperate from the long grind of the season. So someone needs to take their place so they can fill up the roster. (We've already covered the flop of putting the Pro Bowl before the Super Bowl in November.)

However, if you’re the fourth alternate at your position within your conference, should you really get to consider yourself a “Pro Bowler” when talking about your career achievements? When they’re looking at your Hall of Fame credentials, they always mention that Player X was a 7-time Pro Bowler, but they never mention that 5 of those trips were only made possible because Brett Favre, Donovan McNabb and Drew Brees already went to 7 Pro Bowls and wanted to rest after the season. It really waters down the accomplishment.

If someone asked you who the best quarterbacks were in the AFC this season, who would be mentioned? Peyton Manning, Phillip Rivers, Tom Brady, Matt Schaub, and Ben Roethlisberger would likely be the names mentioned the most. And yet, Vince Young, the 10th-highest rated quarterback IN THE CONFERENCE, with less than 2,000 yards passing, will be on the AFC roster. He didn’t even play until week 7 of the season! Yet because Brady, Roethlisberger and Rivers are passing on the game for injury reasons and Manning may have a small thing called the Super Bowl still in front of him, VY will be suiting up. Again, I get that they need to fill out the roster and someone has to play. Young just should not be able to claim that he is now a two-time Pro Bowl player. When Halle Berry won her Oscar in 2001 (for her role of getting wrecked by Billy Bob Thornton in Monster’s Ball), if she couldn’t make the awards ceremony, Beyonce doesn’t get to say she won an Oscar because she picked up the award for Halle.

So please never tell me that Zach Thomas was a much better linebacker than London Fletcher because Thomas has been to 7 Pro Bowls and Fletcher has yet to make his first. Fletcher has had 10 straight seasons with more than 90 tackles. Thomas had only 5 seasons with more than 90 tackles in his entire career. In addition, Fletcher has 8.5 more sacks in one less season than Thomas. Yet Thomas did allow Jason Taylor to marry his sister, so that’s something. The number of pro bowls is an exaggerated and meaningless stat.

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Had this article forwarded to me comparing the Leno-Conan fiasco at NBC to the Packers and Brett Favre. There are some interesting parallels between them, the most surprising to me was that 1992 was the year Leno began on the Tonight Show and Favre got his first start in Green Bay.

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This is beyond explanation – a basketball league only for American-born white guys. Not surprising that they are looking for towns in the south that might be interested. There is no truth to the rumor that they’re looking at putting the 1980’s Milwaukee Bucks teams together again to compete with a team of Fred Roberts, Brad Lohaus, Jack Sikma, Randy Breuer, Scott Skiles, Paul Mokeski, Frank Kornet and Larry Krystowiak.