Due to a family situation, I will be taking a week off from writing.
This has nothing to do with being a parent or any particular sport. This isn't totally about Alex Rodriguez either, he just leads me into the subject. I read an article in the New York Daily News, the Tuesday edition (7/14/2009), about Alex Rodriguez and his fall from "Best in the Game". One quote in particular from Rodriguez bothered, annoyed, frustrated, and saddened me all at the same time; in fairness to him I hear it from a lot of athletes when they are confronted with a wrong they have committed:
“Hey, look, I’ve made mistakes. I felt terrible. I feel terrible. I’ve admitted what I’ve admitted. The only thing I can control now is to be the best player, the best friend, the best father and when it’s all said and done, let the chips fall where they may. But I can’t change what I’ve done in the past. I can only do, in the next nine years, the best I can and go forward.”
I have no problems with him wanting to move forward, everyone makes mistakes and once they have paid for said mistakes they should always aspire to move forward and learn to be a better person/player from these mistakes. My gripe is with his use of the word admitted. Most players who comes forward after their name has been released as a steroid user has basically said "OK, I'll admit it, I used and I'm sorry. But I only used because...". This is not an admission, this is an explanation as to why you did what you did after you were caught.
An admission would constitute you coming forward before anyone announces to the world that you had a positive test, beat your wife, got caught with some drugs, or that you broke your leg riding your motorcycle and not mowing the lawn like you told everyone. This would be an admission of guilt and your explanation thereafter would shed some light on the circumstances requiring such an admission. Too many players these days wait for the news to come out and then they play Mr. High and Mighty in admitting an error in judgement after the fact, as if their doing us a favor by being the bigger person and telling the truth when they could have pled the 5th and said nothing or ride the lie out because their is no concrete evidence against them.
Charles Barkley said it best, "I am not a role model;" and they shouldn't have to be, it's not a job requirement. That's not what I'm asking for here, I'm asking you to step up and tell the truth when no one is asking you to, when there is not an ounce of suspicion upon you. In all honesty it takes a big person to come forward and tell the truth when you know it will tarnish a legacy that you have worked your entire life to build, and there is little chance that anyone will ever find out about your transgression(s) otherwise. It takes courage, strength, honor, and a level of humanness that we rarely see in our athletes outside of their respective fields of battle. We all make our share of mistakes (Lord knows I have and continue to do so) and I understand that they are under much more pressure and scrutiny than the average person; but it makes it so much harder to be fan and root for these guys when they keep coming up so small at being a stand up human being.
Image courtesy of: twothree.net
Well folks, we took down team Red Sox 4-3-3 in a series that was tight throughout. There was plenty of drama with Erik Bedard knocking Matt Holliday down with some high heat on Sunday in the deciding game. During the obligatory bench-clearing brawl Robinson Cano and Jason Bay were ejected for yelling obscenities at each other, and Carlos Beltran phoned in and said he would have taken Jason Varitek down with a low tackle (that guy is still pretty big, you gotta go low) if he was healthy.
Check out the results at this Yahoo link. I was surprised again by our pitching (we won K's, ERA, WHIP, and tied in wins) and disappointed by the hitting (we lost RBIs and batting average, tied in home runs and stolen bases). Hopefully our offense picks up after the all-star break with Carlos Beltran due to return and we go off on a good run.
ROSTER NOTE: I've learned from Brad over Couch Potato Chronicles that Daisuke Matsuzaka is way behind schedule and might not return for an extended period of time. I'm tempted to pick up John Smoltz to replace him but I'm not 100% sold.
Possible candidates for Dice-K's replacement are:
John Smoltz - Still trying to get into form
Phil Hughes - Will pick up cheap wins in relief of Yankee comebacks
Oliver Perez - The Mets offense might help him get 8-9 wins in the second half
Joel Pineiro - low ERA and pitches plenty of innings
Please offer your opinions as they are greatly appreciated.
Thanks guys
On this relaxing Saturday, I just wanted to give a little link love to my fellow bloggers out there. Here is my friends link list one more time. Topics include everything from sports, gadgets, and web design to movies, music, and everyday life happenings.
Enjoy and have a great weekend guys.
Here is an update on the Daddy Sports fantasy baseball team. We actually got slaughtered in Week 1 by Blurnotes 8-0. We got off to a great start but faded as the week went on, his pitching came on at the end just took over. Week 2 went much better as we manhandled Rock†own™ to the tune of a 9-1 victory and a huge leap from last place up to 4th in our league, Yahoo Public 450487.
I had to make a few roster moves due to injuries and the general makeup of the team. Here is the team as it stands and I apologize for not advising of these moves as they happened but I was having trouble posting over the last week or so:
Batters
C - Joe Mauer
1B - Mark Teixeira
2B - Robinson Cano
3B - Ryan Zimmerman
SS - Jimmy Rollins
OF - Justin Upton
OF - Brad Hawpe
OF - Brandon Inge
UTIL - Mark Reynolds
BN - Nyjer Morgan
BN - Clint Barmes
BN - Scott Rolen
BN - Rafael Furcal
DL - Carlos Beltran
Pitchers
SP - Dan Haren
SP - Roy Oswalt
RP - Rafael Soriano
RP - Frank Francisco
P - Wandy Rodriguez
P - Erik Bedard
P - Ervin Santana
BN - Daisuke Matsuzaka*
*On MLB disabled list
Ervin Santana has struggled but I figure we should give him one more start before looking for a replacement. Scott Rolen has no real place to play but we might be able to use him as trade bait for a team in need of a 3rd baseman (he's been playing well and we should try to sell high). Nyjer Morgan has helped us in the steals category but if Rafael Furcal picks it up soon we should be able to replace him as well, possibly with another pitcher as our offense is already pretty strong.
Here are the top free agents available as of today:
John Smoltz -SP, Dan Meyer - SP, RP, Jarrod Washburn - SP, Michael Cuddyer - OF, Kendry Morales - 1B, OF, and JD Drew - OF
I was thinking of swapping Smoltz for Santana but like I said, I think we should give Santana 1 more start to figure things out. I really like Cuddyer but we already have 2 Yankees and 2 Rockies on the team, if we add Cuddyer we would also have 2 Twins which would be too many teammates on the roster in my opinion.
In this week's match, we are currently in a heated battle with Red Sox tied at 4-4. Our pitching is holding it's own and we still have Haren and Oswalt waiting to start this week. We should get the victory and show our true Yankee Pride in this series, giving us bragging rights against another hated rival. Final score should be 7-3.
Any and all roster suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Roy Halladay is being shopped around by the Toronto Blue Jays and I couldn't be more sad. This is one of those unfortunate times in sports when players become fiscal assets rather than contributing members of the team; the Florida Marlins go through this every time they win a World Series. Halladay will become a free agent after the 2010 season and the Blue Jays are afraid of losing him and getting nothing in return, so they are hoping to get a huge crop of top-level prospects that will hopefully keep their team in contention in the tough AL East after Halladay is gone. There is little chance that he will be traded within the division but if the Yankees pull this one off my sadness will be lessened exponentially, if the Red Sox put together the bounty for Halladay then the abyss will go even deeper (can you imagine having to face Beckett and Halladay in the playoffs).
We see this in the NBA and NFL at the end of practically every season or as the trade deadline approaches. I vividly remember, back in 2000, learning that Patrick Ewing was traded from the Knicks to the Seattle Supersonics in the last year of his deal. I was and continue to be a huge Patrick Ewing fan and his leaving for the west coast introduced me to the world of expiring contracts (even though Ewing asked to be traded, his contractual status made him more of an asset). Expiring contracts are hoarded like #1 draft picks in the NBA, I remember a season in which Terrell Brandon, who had not played for a year, was traded by the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Atlanta Hawks simply because he had a favorable contract; they had no hope of him playing for them, he simply gave them some financial flexibility when the team released him. In the NFL, fan favorites like Derrick Brooks, Tory Holt, Chris McAlister, Donnie Edwards, Deuce McAllister, and Marvin Harrison were all released for salary cap reasons.
It is a side of sports business that I completely understand but hate to see. Players who have developed relationships with fans and teammates alike become numbers on a spreadsheet that effect a team's bottom line. I have managed fantasy teams (update on our baseball team will be up shortly) so I do know how tough a decision this can be. I remember 1 year when I was offered Miguel Tejada for Derek Jeter, at the time Tejada was cheaper and left me some room to pick up another pitcher so I went for it. I thought about that trade all year en route to a 3rd place finish. It's tough managing a team and these are the times that I do not envy the men/women in charge of these billion dollar organizations.
Images courtesy of: Examiner.com, Image Envision
Mariano Rivera picked up his 500th save on Sunday night against the New York Mets. He is only the 2nd pitcher in Major League history to reach 500 saves, second only to Trevor Hoffman's 572 (Hoffman is still active and has 18 saves so far this season).
Mariano's road to greatness was improbable if not impossible to predict. I vaguely remember his first game as a Yankee but I do remember that first season, 1995, because it happened to be the same year Derek Jeter came up and began his historic attack on both Pete Rose's hit record and the Maxim Top 100 List. Also coming up that year for the Yanks was Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada (briefly, only for 1 game). It was the beginning of what would become the latest Yankee Dynasty....and Rivera was the least heralded of this bunch.
Mariano was a starter in the minors and that's how I remember him from that year, the skinny young starting pitcher who wasn't Andy Pettitte and threw really hard. Pettitte was groomed as the next great Yankee pitcher while Rivera was just another call up with some promise. It wasn't until, then Yankee manager, Buck Showalter decided to move him to the bullpen that his career found it's glorious path.
In 1996 he combined with John Wetteland to form the backbone of a dominant Yankee bullpen that would lead the team to a World Series Championship. Mariano was so dominant (2.09 ERA, team record 103 strikeouts in relief, and came in 3rd in Cy Young voting...as a middle relief pitcher) that the team decided to let John Wetteland and his 43 saves sign with the Texas Rangers as a free agent and hand the closer role to Rivera. This was before the birth of his bat-breaking and infamous cut fastball, he was that good.
Rivera saved 43 games in 1997 and never looked back. Incidentally, the "cutter" made its debut the following season and helped Mo save another 36 games and close out the San Diego Padres for that World Series Champion 1998 New York Yankees. The story is that Rivera discovered his cut fastball playing catch with Ramiro Mendoza. He was trying to throw a 4-seam fastball but his grip was causing the ball to break to the right at the last minute....a legend is born out of mishap.
Mariano Rivera is consistently among the best closer season after season and is one of the greatest closers of all time, but it didn't always seem that way. If he would have kept pushing to be a starting pitcher instead of a reliever, he may have had a mediocre career at best. Instead he will go down as one of the all-time elites among those who play his position.
I guess the lesson here is to take what life gives and make the best of it. If you've always wanted to be an artist but all you can get are jobs painting houses, be the best house-painter you possibly can. If you want your kid to be a star quarterback but it makes him happy to be a running back, don't push him out of it; let him/her work hard at being a great running back. If dancing makes your son/daughter's heart flutter instead of practicing medicine, play that funky music and step aside. You may never know greatness if you keep blocking it's path.
I honor of Mo, I give you the greatest band this side of Pearl Jam or AC/DC
