Never Underestimate Radical Vision

So the great Sammy Sosa is probably going to retire. Because of pride, he turned down the only contract he had been offered. I would have loved to see what he could have done this year to see if he truly was finished. All over sports talk radio they are talking about how he was one of the greatest power hitters in the game, one of the most beloved players in the game and how amazing it is that he lost his talent so quickly. They go on and on about how good he was, that he is a first ballet Hall of Famer and then he just fell off the table. What I have failed to hear are any comments on the fact that it may, just may, have to do with the recent steroid testing.

I am a big Mark McGwire fan. He has been beaten to death for what he does not want to talk about. Did he use steroids, did he not? We don’t know but most people think that he did and now they say he shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame. Where is all this out cry for Sammy? In my mind he is no better than McGwire. I believe he used the juice. As soon as baseball started testing Sammy’s talent fell apart. I remember watching a game where he grabbed a hold of a fastball and did his little skip as if he just crushed a home run only to watch it fall pitifully to the center fielder ten feet before the wall. Without the juice he wasn’t strong enough to punch it over the wall. I remember when Sammy wasn’t that great of a hitter and just like Rafael Palmerio all of a sudden he started to become a power threat. Coincidence? I think not. We all thought that this was just these great players finding their prime but at least in Rafael’s case it was proven to be the juice. I have seen McGwire get flamed, why hasn’t Sammy taken any flak?

Do these players deserve to be in the Hall of Fame? I think so. It wasn’t against the rules of baseball at the time so it wasn’t technically cheating. Was it cheating on a moral level? I say yes and they will have to live with their tarnished images for the rest of their lives. Can steroids increase your chance to make contact with a ball? I don’t think so but it sure can make the ball go farther when you do.

I don’t want Sammy not to make the Hall of Fame. I really don’t want him to take a beating the way McGwire did. I just want us not to pretend Sammy is any more innocent, because he is not.

“Remember, fans, Tuesday is Die Hard Night. Free admission for anyone who was actually alive the last time the Indians won the pennant.”

……………………………

Last night we had our first softball game. We had an excellent game and won 18 to 4. Everyone really hit the ball well. Our fielding was the best I have seen it in a long time. We made all the plays we should have and even made some that we shouldn’t. There was one spot in the game that if someone would have had a camera they could have won some big money on America’s Funniest Home Videos. Unfortunately the situation involved yours truly…

I was up to bat with a runner on third. I had a real hard time waiting on the ball last night. I was out in front of everything. Well this pitch comes in a little inside and as usual I was out in front of it again. I hit a decent grounder between the third baseman and the shortstop. Even though it wasn’t hit very hard it should have easily made it through for a base hit, of course unless a great play was made. Unless is exactly what happened. After I hit the ball and saw it going right through and I started my jog to first, not being the blazing speedster that others are. Out of the corner of my eye I see the shortstop dive and stop the ball. Crap!!! Now I am going to have to run. Now being as big as I am when I start to run it takes a bit to get me to slow back done, even though my fast is everyone else’s slow. That being said I kicked it into high gear to make it to first. The shortstop threw the ball sitting on the ground and I stretched out with my left foot to hit the bag right before the first baseman caught the ball. All well and good you say, well not so…

The bases we have in this league are made to come out of their holdings relatively easy so that they will not cause injuries when sliding into them. Because of this design they are not entirely stable when stepped on. Well I hit the bag and it tilted slightly and with my momentum being at its peak I lost balance. I started to fall forward and tried to correct myself. But once this train gets to moving it is going to take a lot to stop it and the ground is a good way to do that. I fell over and did a couple rolls on the ground. The only saving grace is that I had enough momentum that I could pop right back up on my feet after the second roll.

Everyone that was there, thankfully not too many since the game was at 8 pm, started bellowing. I have to admit that it would have been a funny site seeing a fat guy like me beat out a play and start rolling on the ground. I of course got all the jeers from my teammates. I think Guy said it best when quoting a movie with a little humor in the voice, “That was awesome!” Man, why couldn’t I have just hit a homer instead.

I am not sure which hurt worse, the leg I scraped up in the fall or my pride. I am going with my pride. I guess it is just another reminder that I need to lose weight

“Crisco, Bardol, Vagisil. Any one of them will give you another two to three inches drop on your curve ball. Of course if the umps are watching me real close I’ll rub a little jalape”o up my nose, get it runnin’, and if I need to load the ball up just wipe my nose.”

…………………

Well the major league winter meetings are under way and now the fun begins. I am very interested in what moves the St. Louis Cardinals make. I also want to see what the player’s union and the owners do about steriods.

I see that we just re-signed Matt Morris for 2.5 million with 4.5 million in performance bonuses .I am really glad that we got to keep Morris. He was making 12+ million and was just not worth that price tag anymore. It would be great to see him return to form and earn that 4.5 million. He is a great Cardinal and I love watching him pitch. Let’s just hope he can find the Matt Morris of a few years ago. I think he can, I mean he is only 30.

I also see that Tony Womak signed with the Yankees for 4 million. Good for him! I am glad to see him get a good contract. He was great for us last year but we have some young players waiting to fill that second base position. Hopefully Hector Luna can prove he can get on base enough to land the position.

I really hope we can re-sign Edgar Renteria. The Cubs were looking at him pretty hard but they just signed Nomar for another year. I believe that is a good sign for us. If we don’t land Edgar, I hope we go after Orlando Cabrera. He has a good bat and can play defense. It is just hard to picture Edgar in another uniform.

I hear that we might try to sign Randy Johnson. I think this move would be a big mistake. For the same money we could pick up Matt Clement and Russ Ortiz. You give these guys the run support we can produce and both will have productive years, just ask Jeff Suppan. They only way I could see justifing his salary was to bring him in to teach the young pitchers we would be bringing up. I am interested in seeing what the front office does with our pitching staff.

I think if we could add a few good pitchers and run with a few young ones we will be right back in the World Series. Pitching is not what killed us in the big game, it was hitting. That being said though, there are a few young pitchers. I would like to have becuase I think they could be even better with our lineup to protect their mistakes. We shall see.

Now, what do you think your team needs to do to get to the big dance? I will help you out. Here are a few players that were not offered arbitration:

Troy Glaus
Jeff Kent
Jermaine Dye
Carlos Delgado
J.D. Drew
Russ Ortiz
Moises Alou
Steve Finley
Eric Milton
Kevin Millwood
Jeromy Burnitz
Magglio Ordonez

Update: this is my 100th post! Yeah!

“Yeah. We’re definitely outside the box now, huh? Now you gotta ask yourself, how far are you willing to go, hmm?”

…………………….

The St. Louis Cardinals are going to the World Series!!! In a great display of small ball the Cardinals finally got to Roger Clemens to win the ball game 5-2. I have to tip my hat to Roger Cedeno for causing so much havoc on the base paths that it took The Rocket out of his game. Albert Pujols won NLCS MVP and well deserved batting .500 with 4 homers and 9 RBIs. More than that is the humbleness he displayed in accepting the award. Go Cardinals!

Note to Dave: Which team are you going to rout for?

Note to Kent: Now that is how a team finishes off a series.

Note to everybody else: Baseball kicks butt!

………………….

Have mentioned recently that Elisha Cutherbert is perfect angel of delight? Have I mentioned that she has the most intoxicating eyes? Have I mentioned that you need to pick up The Girl Next Door and watch it? I have, ohhh, sorry, my bad

“Frank, this is a safe place. A place where we can feel free sharing our feelings. Think of my office as a nest in a tree of trust and understanding. We can say anything here.”

………………..

Both David and Kent commented on what has to be the biggest, most spectacular sporting event in recent history and maybe ever.  For those who live under a rock, the Boston Red Sox pulled off the impossible by coming back from and 3-0 deficit to take the pennant away from the New York Yankees.  It was simply amazing!  The whole playoff series was great.  David Ortiz, Johnny Damon, Curt Schilling, Orlando Cabrera and company put their heart, soul and everything on the line to win this thing and it is a credit to their character.

I am a die hard St. Louis Cardinals fan.  I would love to see Boston and St. Louis in the World Series.  While Boston is my second favorite team, I would not be too hurt if they were to beat my beloved Cardinals.  It would be priceless to see that series come down to a game 7.  Yet, first things first, the Cardinals have to win tonight.  I think the Red Sox have to win the series to break the curse, but this playoff win is almost as sweet.  It would be an amazing series.  (Have I said amazing enough yet?)

This series was one for the ages.  This series taught us to never give up.  Never take anything for face value.  Always try, push and give everything you have and you can do the impossible.  It is amazing that sports can constantly remind us mere mortals to keep plugging away at this life and live something truly spectacular.  I thank the Red Sox for giving me the dream, for giving me an example I can give to my son.  I believe now; I have seen it with my eyes. 

You may not be into baseball or sports in general, but this series was worth the watch.  You got to truly see David defeat the giant.  You got to see the good guy finally win.  You got to see the geek finally land the hot chick.  You got to see history.

History was made, I witnessed it and I will forever be changed because of it.  The question is now posed:

Why not me?

………………….

Have mentioned recently that Elisha Cutherbert is perfect angel of delight? Have I mentioned that she has the most intoxicating eyes? Have I mentioned that you need to pick up The Girl Next Door and watch it? I have, ohhh, sorry, my bad

The NHL and its players need to wake up.  I have no clue what they are thinking.  With a little common sense this whole thing can be avoided.  This sport needs a cap in the worst way.  Parody needs to be in place around the league.  I would argue that the NHL is the sixth largest sport behind the NFL, MLB, NBA, PGA and NASCAR.  The recent playoff TV ratings help my point.  We can argue all day on what they need to do to make the sport more appealing to fans, camera angles, rule changes, etc. but what they definitely need to do is play.

What is really crazy to me is that the same players who don’t want a cap will go play in Europe for  a lot less money and risk career ending injury!  The total is up to 185 NHLers playing in Europe.  I know that most of them are the little guys not making much money, but there are a lot of stars over there as well.  The guys are really playing it dumb here.  I mean hasn’t it been proven that NHL clubs lose money?  Baseball would never open its books, but I believe Nathan told me last year that the St. Louis Blues lost something like sixty millions dollars.  That is unbelievable!  How can you expect to sustain a sport with that type of loss?  The pampered, no-tooth babies need to get their arses back on the ice and play.  They are doing it currently for a lot less.  It makes no sense?

What is really killer is that hockey has been trying really hard to win the casual fan.  They want them to show up for a live game so that they will become a fan.  Then that fan might even decide to watch it on TV.  Why in the world would the casual fan spend their hard-earned 65 dollars now?  Hockey is going to need a Wayne Gretzky, record breaking performance by someone to pull interest back to the sport.  Baseball needed Mark and Sammy, I wonder who will be there for hockey. ESPN and ESPN Radio barely covered the sport when it was going on, now what motivation do they have now?  This is really a moronic move by the players!

I consider myself the casual fan.  I watch hockey on TV occasionally.  I went to a live contest and loved every minute of it, well it could have been the beer, but at any rate I have no motivation to care anymore.  Why should I spend my money on a sport that does not have sense enough to know it is on the bottom of the food chain and can’t afford dark spots like this?

My name is Travis Chase and I am a NFL, MLB fan.

Wait, shouldn’t this have been on Kent’s blog?

Kent offers up a difficult question to answer about the world of football this year. I will have to say that so far this year the NFL has been crazy. The Patriots and the Eagles look very strong; yet, the Eagles usually look strong and it is so hard for a defending Super Bowl champion to repeat. Until the Patriots lose they have to be a strong pick. Coming into the year the trendy picks were Baltimore, Seattle, Kansas City and Indy.

Baltimore struggled their first game but has rebounded. They only question about them is where are they going to find some offense. The offensive side of the ball really needs to step up. They did win a Super Bowl not too long ago with defense only but that will be difficult to repeat. Not only that, they are a Jamal Lewis conviction away from being a bottom-of-the-cellar team.

Seattle looks very impressive. They need to play some stronger opponents on the road to make a believer out of me. They have a great quarterback, great running game and great receivers. Ray Rhodes defense is playing great as well. I will keep a close eye on this team.

Lets face it Kansas City SUCKS so far! This is like the collapse of the Raiders after their Super Bowl appearance. It would take a miracle for them to even make the playoffs and they have a tough Baltimore team coming in this week. It does not look good and Jamal Lewis should eat the KC defense alive.

Indy looks great. Payton Manning is the best pure passer in the game. He is so smart and knows what the defense is trying to do on every play. With weapons like Edge and Marvin, their offense can put up a lot of points in a hurry. We just need to see if their defense can hold up.

With only three weeks into the season it is hard to predict who will be there in the end. Most of these teams are an injury away from being a five hundred team. But here is my week 3 prediction:

AFC Championship Game: New England vs. Indy
NFC Championship Game: Philly vs. Seattle

Super Bowl: Indy vs. Philly

Winner: Peyton Manning gets his first Super Bowl win!

An elementary school teacher in Kansas City, Missouri says to his class,
“OK kids, today we’re going to talk about baseball. I’m a Kansas City Royals fan. Are there any other Royals fans in class?”

All the kids except one girl raise their hands. The teacher says to the girl,”Well, what team do you root for?”

The girl says, “I’m a Cardinals fan.”

“Really, and why is that?”

“Because my mom is from St. Louis and she’s a Cardinals fan, and my dad is from St. Louis and he’s a Cardinals fan, so I’m a Cardinals fan too.”

The teacher says, “But you know, we don’t always have to be something just because our parents are. I mean, what if your mom was a prostitute and your dad was a convicted felon?”

And the little girl says, “Then I’d be a Cubs fan.”

Top ten you might be a Cubs fan if……

10. If you think Harry Carry has a good voice, you might be a Cubs fan.
9. If you think a Ryno is a second baseman, you might be a Cubs fan.
8. If you think Mark Grace deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, you might be a Cubs fan.
7. If you really think Sammy didn’t mean to cork his bat, you might be a Cubs fan.
6. If you think Steve Bartman really cost you the game, you might be a Cubs fan.
5. If the best catcher in your franchise was named Jody, you might be a Cubs fan.
4. If you think “fruit of the vine” refers to the extras you get with your monthly subscription, you might be a Cubs fan
3. If you think the most vile creature on the planet is a goat, you might be a Cubs fan.
2. If you think Rookie of the Year was the best movie ever, you might be a Cubs fan.

And number one….

1. If the people that witnessed your last World Series win are all dead, you might be a Cubs fan.

This one’s for you Kent!

i played my first game of roller hockey last night and it was flat out awesome. i would bet anyone if they saw a live hockey game and played a little themselves, they would be fans for life. it has to be one of the best sports to play. you get a great workout but even a fat guy like me can go for a couple of hours. our game was called because of lights and one of my wheels broke. it ended in a 4 – 4 tie and i scored 3 goals. i have to admit, i had more fun playing hockey last night than i have ever had playing basketball, baseball or football. hockey surpasses them all, not by much mind you, but it was just a lot of fun. next time you out-of-towners are in town bring you blades and we will PUCK IT UP!