Tuesday Ramblings - No S#it.

Before getting to the headlines that should surprise no one………I’m a big Packer fan, but obviously not as big as this guy. I watched the game but if I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was responsible for the defensive game plan or something…….

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Mark McGwire admitted to using steroids. No S#it. That’s almost as surprising as when I heard NBA players like to gamble and own guns. Why is this even a story? We knew with absolute certainty that he did steroids – look at the picture. Not just that his arms more than doubled, but look at the size of his head post steroids. It’s the same story as Sammy Sosa or Barry Bonds. Why does the media continue to shove it down our throats as if we really care any more? Mark obviously wants to get the A-Rod/Andy Pettite treatment now that he has admitted it so he can be loved in his role as hitting coach in St. Louis and eventually get elected to the Hall of Fame. We all know many, many baseball players during the 90’s used steroids. It was pitchers on steroids. It was hitters on steroids. Hell, managers may have been on steroids for all we know. We have to just footnote the era and move forward – we can’t go back in time and undo the records – they happened, we all watched and enjoyed it and the media reported on it with excitement. Last quick add – did you see the interview he gave on MLB Network? How much botox does he have in his face? His neck is all wrinkled and old, yet his face is perfectly smooth and doesn’t move even when he’s faking those tears. Let’s just move on.

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USC is struggling to find a coach to replace Pete Carroll. No S#it. So if you see a house with a ton of smoke coming from the roof and the former owner is running out of the house and laughing on his way to the bank, should you just head inside and call it home? The USC athletic program, both basketball and football particularly, is burning down due to repeated NCAA infractions. No current coach in a decent situation is going to leave that situation for USC. The only one who will? Jack Del Rio of the Jacksonville Jaguars, whom theJags would like to fire but are so financially strapped that they can’t. This could be a “get out of jail free” card for both Del Rio and the Jags.

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ABC’s “The Bachelor” show is heavily “steered” and creates story lines to build drama. No S#it. For those of you that have wives, girlfriends or secret obsessions with the show, the following link contains spoilers about the current season. So be warned but feel free to use it to win wagers of any amount against your wives, girlfriends or friends. Unfortunately, it does not contain pictures of Rozlyn, who was at the center of the supposed scandal and kicked off the show. But again, why would we be surprised that they stage/force many of the women to make these over the top statements of how in love they are with the midget pilot?

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Bullets don’t kill a 700 pound black bear. No S#it.

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NBC went cheap by moving Leno to the earlier slot, then reversed course and has now pissed off Leno and Conan. No S#it. I watched the new version of the Leno show once and it was horrendous. It reminded me of a bad high school production with cheap sets, bad lighting and awkward segments. So getting rid of that show is logical. Since Conan took over the Tonight Show the ratings have been awful because Conan does not appeal to the general audience for the show – middle aged and older adults. Conan’s a snarky, arrogant d-bag whose humor relies on him being smarter than you. It would then seem extremely logical for NBC to move Leno back to his original time slot and bump Conan out of the way. Yes, they’ve handled it poorly and yes, someone will get fired for the failed experiment. Yet people are acting with extreme surprise and trying to make a story out of something where the proper response should have been: No S#it.

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I feign interest in a blizzard on Mount Kilimanjaro just to post a picture of Jessica Biel. No S#it. Why would we be surprised about this? I mean, there are legit questions like why is Jessica Biel climbing a mountain? Or why is the granddaughter of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau with her? I guess it really doesn’t matter.

Tuesday Ramblings - World Series - Philadelphia, NJ

Interesting take here from Gary D Howard on how to handle Brett Favre’s return to Lambeau this Sunday. I think I agree with him. As much of a d-bag as Favre was as a person on his way out of town, he was the single legend that returned respectability to the team, the franchise, the city and the state for football. He’s the reason Reggie White came to town. So I think he deserves the pre-game cheer when he runs out on to the field. But that’s where it ends, and once the ball is kicked, I’m cheering with all my might for him to be the overly-excited turnover machine he has been in the past.

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So Mark McGwire is going to be a hitting coach? Isn’t that kind of like asking a girl with a boob job to explain a push-up bra? I think this is another case of the arrogance of Tony LaRussa taking over. He is trying to get people to see McGwire as a baseball guy and eventually get him into the Hall of Fame, instead of only remembering his pathetic performance in front of Congress about using steroids – “I’m not here to talk about the past.” The guy is a career .263 hitter, and only hit over .300 twice in full seasons during his 16 year career. And that guy is going to teach guys how to hit? What is he going to teach Albert Pujols? Ridiculous.

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Could ESPN have a more biased team of analysts for the baseball season? Jayson Stark, Peter Pascarelli, Eric Karabell, and John Kruk are such homers for the Phillies, they can’t actually make sane assessments of the matchup between Philly and the Yankees. Stark just hesitated comparing Jorge Posada and Carlos Ruiz. Don’t get me wrong, Ruiz has a knack for coming up with huge hits and might be the Darrell Porter of the past few season, but he is not on the same level as Posada. And I think Posada is a whiny diva biyatch. Kruk claimed that the Phillies line-up was more potent than the Yankees. Really? Better than the Yankees lineup that had 7 guys with more than 20 HRs, all 9 starters with double digits in HRs, the second-highest batting average in baseball, 244 HRs as a team (more than the NL leading 224 the Phils hit), and the highest OBP in the league. It’s not even close, and Kruk showed he must have had his brains in his mullet during the 90’s and when he cut it off to do television analysis, he lost his mind.

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How are you feeling if you’re a Cleveland Indians fan right now? Watching your two former aces facing off in game 1 – CC Sabbathia vs. Cliff Lee. Ouch. Doesn’t seem like that long ago the Indians had a team that looked ready to compete for some time with Grady Sizemore, Jhonny Peralta, Victor Martinez, CC & Lee. Maybe they’re the new Montreal Expos – Pedro Martinez, Delino DeShields, Marquis Grissom, Larry Walker, Moises Alou, Cliff Floyd, Sean Berry, Mel Rojas, Dennis Martinez, Ken Hill, and John Wetteland

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Taking the Yankees in 6 games. Too much Yankee offense, and despite the fact that the Phillies bullpen was good in the NLCS, they are not good. The Phillies are relying on Pedro to keep his magic going and Cole Hammels to not be as awful as he has been during the regular and post season. That’s too many holes to allow a team like the Yankees to exploit. The Phillies were the best team in the NL all season, and deserve to be in the World Series, but they don’t have the talent to keep up.

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So the teams will have a something like 17 off-days during the post-season, after only having 20 off-days during the entire 6-month regular season. That’s a dumb schedule.

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Philly is my most hated city in the entire US. The city is dirty, ugly and not good to visit or spend any time in. And the people are all chubby, greasy, angry, fair-weather fans, and all have a chip on their shoulder. I understand that it’s not fun being the biggest city in New Jersey – I’d be angry too if that was my claim to fame. Oh, wait, their claim to fame is a fake movie about a 5’5” boxer named Rocky. So their baseball success has just made their fans even more insufferable. I hope they get swept just to shut up their fans. As a good friend says, “Philly is a good place to take a dump on your way to a real city.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: I know Philly is not actually in Jersey, but it might as well be – it’s surrounded by Jersey, the people are the same as the worst in Jersey and it smells like the worst of Jersey.

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I think the NBA season starts tonight. I think I’ll put together a season preview piece as soon as the players start to play hard and make an effort. So look for that piece to come out around New Year’s. The biggest stories for the season are what LeBron James and Dwayne Wade are going to do NEXT year, and all the teams that are tanking it to make cap room to try and sign one of those guys.

Oh, and Blake Griffin gets a hairline fracture in his knee 2 days before he’s supposed to make his regular season debut. And he looked extremely impressive and had the potential to keep the Clippers in the playoff hunt. Typical Clippers luck.

And I’m pretty sure that Kevin Durant is the new Dominique Wilkins. A dynamic player that everyone talks about as being under the radar, but he’s under the radar because he doesn’t have the ability to raise the level of play for those around him. Someone has to take shots and score on that pathetic team. Maybe a combination of Wilkins and Shareef Abdur-Rahim.