Tuesday Ramblings - Batman, Cowards, Liars, Etc.

Manu Ginobli knocks a bat out of mid-air on Halloween night during a basketball game. However, what’s more amazing than his bat hunting is his bald spot in the back of his head. Dude is 28 years old and has the bald spot of a 60 year old. I mean, my forehead is expanding as my hair runs away from my eye brows, but not nearly as rapidly as Manu’s bald spot is attacking his head. Combine that with his deteriorating knees and ankles and maybe he’s like a Cuban baseball player and is actually 45 years old.

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So Brandon Spikes gets suspended for the first HALF of the game this week against Vandy for his eye gouge against Georgia? What a cowardly move by Urban Meyer. While Urban is a good coach, he’s a pompous d-bag as a person. For him to stand up there and lie that “we take this very seriously” and follow it up with a half game suspension? It’s like George Costanza’s “Was that wrong?” after diddling the maid in his office.

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Chase Utley is having a World Series for the ages. Unfortunately, it’s likely to be forgotten if the Yankees end up closing out the series. People tend to forget amazing performances by losing teams/people. But the dude is raking fastballs out of the park this series, with 2 more in game 6 last night. The best example was 2002, when Barroid Bonds hit 4HR, 13BBs, 22 Total Bases, 8 Runs, .700 OBP, and a 1.294 Slugging % - all among the top ten all-time in a single World Series.

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Not sure we’ll get to the point of a Game 7, but I’d say that Cole Hamels has created quite a firestorm with his comment that he just wants the season to be over. If you’re the other guys in the locker room, can you feel good if he takes the mound in a decisive game for the championship? You bust your arse all season and fight your way back from a 3-1 deficit in the World Series and then this joker is going to be the pitcher to determine whether you get a ring? And the fact that Brett Myers had to talk to him about his comments (whether or not it was “confrontational”) proves that the team is concerned he’s not all in, like the rest of them. Hamels could be on the fast track to the pitching career of Rick Ankiel – fast start, followed by even faster decline. Can Hamels play the outfield? The rumors are that his wife Heidi (originally of Survivor and Playboy fame) made him focus more on making money and doing endorsements than on improving as a pitcher. Then again, if the Yankees win in game 6, no one will remember that Hamels wanted to be a quitter.

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The Browns fired their GM, George Kokinis yesterday. Kind of like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. The question is whether it was a warning shot to Mangini or if it was Mangini throwing Kokinis under the bus? They have the 34th ranked QB in the league (there are only 32 teams), an old RB that already said he’s retiring after this season because he can’t take it anymore, and they traded their #1 WR after he got in a fight at a night club. They have the worst prospects for a turnaround than any team other than maybe the Raiders.

Now the fans are threatening to boycott the team and the owner has offered to meet with those fans that organized the boycott. Can you imagine how that conversation is going to go?

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Could the Oakland situation with Tom Cable get any worse? So far on Cable’s hit list…..a wife, a couple girlfriends and an assistant coach (allegedly). What’s next? And of course, when asked about it, he denied it. Until the police report was shown to him, then he suddenly remembered it, and remembered details including that it was an open hand. What a liar and a loser. I’m sure he feels like Roger Clemens and all these women must “mis-remember” what actually happened.

At least the Raiders used a big word in their statement about the situation to try and prove they aren’t idiots. “For reasons of privacy, we kept the basis for those dismissals confidential. We endured public OPPROBRIUM for the dismissals, all the while knowing our basis for them was appropriate.” What? I guess it means public disgrace or ill fame. And if that’s the case, the entire Raiders situation is an opprobrium.

Coaching Past the Expiration Date

I am no fan of Florida State football and definitely not a fan of Bobby Bowden, but the current situation is a complete mess and cannot end well for either side. I mean, we’re talking “Britney Spears marrying that Jason Alexander in Vegas” or “the Atlanta Falcons hiring Bobby Petrino” or “letting Rex Ryan and Andy Reid into an all-you-can-eat buffet” type of disasters.

There is no doubt in my mind that the time has come, well it actually came more than a few years ago, for Bobby to hang it up. His teams have slipped noticeably since 2001, and are now a far cry from the 90s, when Florida State was guaranteed to be in the top 10 and the tomahawk chop was always in a top bowl game. Unfortunately, Bobby’s enormous ego has gotten the best of him, and continues to hang around trying to make sure he tops the other past-his-time old foggie – Joe Paterno – for the all-time wins record. But for that tool from the Board of Trustees to come out with a statement about what Bobby will do was also a stupid move. The guy built FSU into a top-tier program, and even though he has now rode it down to mediocrity, he deserves to go out by being celebrated with class. And if that turd of a trustee really cared about FSU football, he would understand that causing controversy is going to do nothing but hurt the school’s image and destroy recruiting, which guarantees a longer time before the program is relevant.

Bowden started coaching FSU in 1976, and had them in back-to-back Orange Bowls in 1979 and 1980. He then did not lose more than 2 games in a season between 1987 and 2000. Unfortunately, since then, he has lost at least 3 games every season, including 7-6 records in 2007 & 2008. The only positive thing to come out of FSU in the past 9 years has been that fan girl – Jen Sterger.

Speaking of Joe Pa, what are the odds that he retires before he dies? I know it’s a morbid thought, but that crazy old dude is never going to leave. I understand the concept that he has “earned the right” to step down when he wants to, but doesn’t he have any trusted advisors that can give him a sense of reality? He is completely a figure-head, and is not really doing any coaching or recruiting for the team. The only value he is bringing is pity (like when he broke his leg on the sideline) and unintentional comedy (like when a reporter asked him if he wanted the field named after him and he responded with “I don’t think much about being dead.”).

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I think the Braylon Edwards trade has a chance to be a great one for the Jets & for Edwards himself. However I think the Jets should take some precautions to enhance the likelihood of success. Edwards has always been accused of being easily distracted and not focused on being a football player, rather choosing to pay attention to being a star. And obviously, moving to New York could be throwing gasoline on that fire. So I think the Jets should force him to live in New Jersey and ban him from coming into the city. Living in Jersey, he’ll be forced to focus on football, because unless he’s going to be distracted by white cars with dark tinted windows and big rims, big-haired women or cement-gelled hair on dudes, he will have nothing but football to focus on.

The guy is a big-time football talent – a big WR with the speed to get downfield and go up over DBs. He provides a great security blanket for Mark Sanchez, and in the new disciplined environment of Rex Ryan, Edwards could thrive. We’ll see how it actually plays out, but I think the Jets got one last kick of Eric Mangini.

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One final note…..on Deion Sanders, arguably the best player to ever come out of Florida State. What is this guy doing? He has ties to Michael Crabtree’s agent, and is at the heart of the 49ers tampering charges against the Jets. And he was the reason Dez White (one of the best WR in college) of Oklahoma State just lost his eligibility to play college football. Oh, and Deion is employed by the NFL Network, so he’s an employee of the league. Deion, what are you doing? I know you think you’re a businessman, trying a reality TV show, rapping and selling a hot dog cooker……but maybe you should just stick to talking about football in a studio and stay away from college players.

(The quality of the video is terrible, but it seems to be the only one out there).

Monday's Love/Hate

So there are many places to get more detailed recaps of all the NFL games on Monday mornings, so I’m not going to try and compete with Peter King, Michael Silver or Don Banks. Those guys watch more film and can provide insight from talking to guys in or at any and all of the games. Whether I agree with them or think they have a ridiculous East Coast bias (hello, Mr. King), they do a nice job of summarizing everything that happened. Instead, I’m just going to give a quick list of things I took from the weekend…..very simple, either they’re a “Love” or a “Hate”.

LOVE

- Superman just took off his Tim Tebow underwear…..and replaced them with Mark Sanchez underwear.

- The NFC North has the best collection of QBs in the league – without question.

- I strongly dislike the person Favre, but the player Favre still has some magic and he has a knack for the dramatic. The Vikings don’t win a game like that with a QB named Sage or Tavaris. Next Monday’s game against the Packers should be extremely interesting.

- Ballsy call by Belichick going for 4th & 1 from their own 24 in the 2nd half. The type of call that you can make when you have the fistful of rings like he does.

- Another week, another bunch of top10 college teams go down. Is Boise State really going to make it to the BCS championship? It’s too early to worry about it, but they have a fairly easy road there, they’re already #5, and many of the teams in front of them play each other, so are bound to lose at least 1 game.

- Peyton Manning is cementing his place as one of the best QBs of all time. He already has the one super bowl (as many as Favre), and his mastery of changing plays, directing late drives, etc. all while the team rebuilds his receiving corps is impressive. Loses a hall of famer in Harrison, and his replacement in Gonzalez, and he just shifts over to Dallas Clark, and a young guy in Garcon and doesn’t miss a beat. Despite resembling Herman Munster, and being a commercial whore, the guy is an amazing talent.

- Finally getting the baseball regular season over with and geting geared up for playoff baseball. Hopefully the pitching comes through and we get some of those classic 3-2 or 2-1 playoff games - yeah, I'm old-school like that.

HATE

- Hated the media trying to bait TO into a meltdown – he answered their questions and obviously didn’t want to say anything more. As much of a jackass as he has been in the past – get off his back, he answered the question how he wanted to answer it.

- Jim Zorn, please call your local real estate agent. You should put your house on the market. And if you need a prospective buyer, I suggest you get in contact with Mike Shannahan. Seems like the right fit for a team that needs some creative offense and a big name to keep the owner happy.

- Listening to the radio broadcast of the Pats game driving through New England – the Pats may have the worst radio announcers I’ve ever heard. No life in their voices, and for pass plays, every call started with “Direct snap to Brady….” And running plays all were “….slams it in there…..(3 second delay) ….(then tells us it was a 6 yard gain).” It was dull and lacked any description more than what you could get on the internet gamecast play-by-play.

- Having to admit that as much as I dislike Cutler’s baby antics, the guy has the right moxy to win in the NFL if he can keep the team behind him.

- So I have some venom Eric Mangini because I think he micromanages and doesn’t treat his team like adults – and I think there is no worse way to work than to have an over-bearing, condescending manager. But my feelings pale in comparison to this article about him.

- CNBC’s heavy focus on politics and losing focus on the markets/stocks. I know they’re very closely related and given the amount of government intervention in many industries, it’s somewhat oriented, but there’s CSPAN for coverage of Congressional hearings and every speech from Obama to another group of union workers. Fox Business channel has an opening if they can hire some better on-air talent.