Tuesday Ramblings

I’m suffering from a serious Favre Overload hangover today. The bottom line is that Favre played great, showed that when he is healthy and prepared he can still make great things happen. It also was obvious that the Vikings are a better team than the Packers at this point, with a strong offensive line, good running game, stout defense, and now a passing game that has to be respected.

So did Ted Thompson make a mistake by not keeping Favre around? It doesn’t really matter because QB is not what is causing problems for Green Bay. The problem is the offensive line, which is causing major headaches (literally & figuratively) for Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy. Because the offensive line has been so offensive, the Packers have had to resort to keeping the TE in to block, rolling out the QB, and other tricks to try and cover up the porous blocking. And when you combine that with the fact that Rodgers holds the ball too long, it is a dangerous combination. Kind of like the combination of giving Chris Berman directions to an all-you-can-eat buffet at Hooters (did you catch the quote from him that it was “Breast Awareness Week” instead of “Breast Cancer Awareness Week” in the NFL?).

I guess Superman has taken off his Tim Tebow and Mark Sanchez underwear and went back to his 2007 or his retro-1997 Brett Favre underwear.

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So the reports are out there that Tony Romo didn’t realize that it was 4th down on the final play against the Broncos. Ouch. Seems like the backwards-hat wearing, happy-go-lucky, Gomer Pyle look-alike, QB is truly suffering from the curse that Jessica Simpson put on him when he dumped her. If it’s true that he didn’t know it was 4th down after forgetting to take the 2nd down spike, it’s another example of how he does not have the ability to be any better than an average QB in the NFL.

I think the best chance he has of ever breaking through is if Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett are fired after this season and Mike Shannahan can come to town and instill some discipline and rigidness to the Cowboys and Romo in particular.

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Tigers-Twins one-game playoff today. Everyone seems to think that the Twins have all the momentum and will win because they’re at home. Howevever (Steven A Smith style), the Tigers have the better pitcher in rookie Porcello starting today, which should be enough to get them through. Yes, they have the distraction of the bizarre Miguel Cabrera story being drunk and having an altercation with his wife in hotel outside of Detroit, but I’m still going with Detroit to end the days of baseball in the Metrodome.

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Supposedly the NBA season starts at the end of this month. Does it really matter until you get closer to the playoffs? So many teams cruise through the regular season knowing they can turn it up for the playoffs, the regular season is unbelievably useless. But that John Hollinger guy does more work at ESPN than anyone I’ve ever seen. Just perusing quickly through the ESPN NBA page, and Hollinger has predictions and previews for not just every team, but every player. In the entire league!!

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Glad to see they busted that dude who was stalking and taking the videos of Erin Andrews. Hopefully he gets locked up and she can get back to being the most valuable sideline reporter out there. And not just because she’s good looking (and she is extremely talented) – I do think she knows her stuff, is well-prepared, and adds actual value to the broadcast. She’s the anti-Tony Siragusa.

Barney Baseball

Baseball is in the final week of the regular season and I can’t remember a recent season with less drama in almost every race. The only exception is the AL Central where the Tigers and Twins are currently starting a 4 game series with the Twins trailing the Tigers by 2 games. Why does no one outside of Minnesota or Michigan care about who wins? Part of the problem is the media’s intense focus on only things involving the Yankees, Red Sox or Dodgers – the 3 biggest baseball markets. The other problem is that whoever wins the division is going to be first round fodder for those Yankees.

What’s better? To be the Twins where every year you might barely squeak into the playoffs and then get bounced in the first round, or to be the Marlins where they build up a team capable of winning (and they have won), then blow the whole thing up, are terrible for a couple years and then reload. I’m not sure, because I’d like to be in the playoffs every year, but do you become immune to the excitement if you just continually get bounced in the first round? Kind of like a girlfriend that has classic good looks but may not be a super model/singer vs. the girl with the boob job and botox that’s going to need to be “retuned” every few years. I think I’ll take the consistency year over year. Think Tony Romo trading in Jessica Simpson for Natalie Smith.

This season, there have barely been any changes in playoff teams since the end of June. As of June 30, the AL playoff teams would have been: Boston, NY, LA Angels, and Detroit. As of today, those are the exact same teams, the only difference is now the Yankees won the division and the Red Sox are the wildcard. In the NL, it took an extra 3 weeks, but as of July 20, the playoff teams would have been: Philly, St. Louis, Dodgers, and Colorado. As of today, those are the exact teams in the exact places.

The positive from the fact that the last 2+ months of the season have been meaningless, is that it confirms that the best teams will be active in the playoffs. These teams have proven over the course of the season that they have the best teams in their divisions and, in theory, the playoffs should be very competitive. I’ll put together a more in-depth preview once the regular season is complete, but for now I’ll just say that I think 1-2-3 starting pitchers and a couple guys who can mash are the keys to success in the playoffs.

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On a somewhat related, but different topic, I’m rooting really hard for the Rockies to fold in this past week and have the Braves or the Giants make the playoffs as the NL Wild Card. I’m not sure what I have against the Rockies – they swept the Phillies two years ago, which I thoroughly enjoyed – but I think it has something to do with the Purple Barney uniforms. Has a team wearing purple ever won a major championship?

NFL – Vikings -> Nope
NBA – Suns, Raptors (since dropped), Kings, Jazz, Bucks (since dropped) -> Nope
MLB – Rockies -> Nope
NHL – LA Kings -> Nope

The only real exception is the LA Lakers. Their purple and gold has won many championships, so maybe they break the rules about winning while looking like Barney.

I guess the only other exceptions I can think of are the Baltimore Ravens, but they are primarily black and white and use purple and gold as accent colors……maybe. And I guess you could make a case for the Arizona Diamondbacks, but since they’ve changed colors 3,217 times in the 11 years they’ve had a team, I’m not sure it counts.

So maybe that’s why I don’t want to see the Rockies in the playoffs. Either that or it’s the fact that games at Coors are never the classic pitching duels I like in the playoffs. Or I’d rather watch Lincecum or Tommy Hanson pitch than……….sorry, can’t think of a Rockies pitcher – Ubaldo Jimenez?