Friday, December 10, 2010
CNN Finally Gets a Sense of Humor
Poor Ali Velshi, he's always getting embarrassed like this. The funny thing is, I think the diarrhea scene from Dumb and Dumber was supposed to tease an upcoming story on irritable bowel disease. Is that a funny thing to mock with a movie clip? And even if they planned it, shouldn't they have known better than to do it right after the London riots, with no context at all?
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Murray Chass is a Fuckin Moron
I have written before about my hatred for New York Times baseball writer Murray Chass. Now the old fool, who is somehow in the Hall of Fame, has embarrassed himself again.
In a recent article Chass ripped Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci for voting against former union leader Marvin Miller for the Hall of Fame.
Only problem is, Verducci voted for Miller. Chass was fed some bad info by Miller himself who was passing along hearsay about who may have voted against him.
Verducci returns fire, repeatedly referring to Chass as “the blogger.” This actually confused me when I was reading it, thinking he was referring to someone else because surely he would use “Chass” on second reference.
But apparently Chass hates bloggers (like all old-school (read: dead) media types) so this insult is likely to cut Chass to the core.
But beyond the petty dispute between sportswriters, and my ongoing hatred for Murray Chass, let me make a quick remark about Marvin Miller.
I do not think he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. In order for a non-player to make it, I think his contributions have to be undeniable and his legacy untainted.
Miller was integral in creating free agency, a major victory for the players and for fairness. His biggest legacy is the strong labor union.
The downside of that: the players’ strike of 1994 which led to the cancelation of the World Series, the Steroid Era which occurred in large part because of the union’s resistance to steroid testing and the lack of a salary cap which led to an unbelievable salary imbalance causing the near-death of baseball in about ten markets.
With all those negatives on his legacy there is no way Marvin Miller deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
And neither does Murray Chass.
In a recent article Chass ripped Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci for voting against former union leader Marvin Miller for the Hall of Fame.
Only problem is, Verducci voted for Miller. Chass was fed some bad info by Miller himself who was passing along hearsay about who may have voted against him.
Verducci returns fire, repeatedly referring to Chass as “the blogger.” This actually confused me when I was reading it, thinking he was referring to someone else because surely he would use “Chass” on second reference.
But apparently Chass hates bloggers (like all old-school (read: dead) media types) so this insult is likely to cut Chass to the core.
But beyond the petty dispute between sportswriters, and my ongoing hatred for Murray Chass, let me make a quick remark about Marvin Miller.
I do not think he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. In order for a non-player to make it, I think his contributions have to be undeniable and his legacy untainted.
Miller was integral in creating free agency, a major victory for the players and for fairness. His biggest legacy is the strong labor union.
The downside of that: the players’ strike of 1994 which led to the cancelation of the World Series, the Steroid Era which occurred in large part because of the union’s resistance to steroid testing and the lack of a salary cap which led to an unbelievable salary imbalance causing the near-death of baseball in about ten markets.
With all those negatives on his legacy there is no way Marvin Miller deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
And neither does Murray Chass.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
The NFL is Poop - Week 13
From Boy Genius to Bye Genius
Josh McDaniels became the third NFL coach to be fired midseason, seems like an unusually high number for the NFL. He won his first 6 games, then lost almost all the rest. He came setting the house on fire jettisoning his two best players, Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall. It was the manifestation of the Belichickian philosophy, "the players don't matter, the system wins championships." And while the Patriots have succeeded with a rotating array of parts (Tom Brady being a crucial constant) it hasn't worked so well for others. Romeo Crennell, Charlie Weis, Eric Mangini and now McDaniels all failed in their first stops as head coaches.
The other big loser in this is Tim Tebow. The one head coach willing to take a chance on him, thinking he could develop into something is no longer a head coach. And with Kyle Orton being pretty decent, it's unlikely Tebow will ever get to be a QB in Denver.
This Picture Was the Best Part of the Game
I guess I am a glutton for punishment because almost every year I go see the Redskins play the Giants in the Meadowlands aka PaulsFriendLands. New Meadowlands, old Meadowlands, same shitty results. This game was fuckin freezing and the Giants dominated it. We couldn't stop the run, we turned it over 6 times and Donovan McNabb of course, couldn't make a play. The Redskins four remaining games are against Tampa Bay, Dallas, Jacksonville and the Giants. If Vegas put odds on this, you'd get even money to wager on 4 more losses in a row.
But At Least It Wasn't This Bad
The Jets went into New England thinking they were about to make a statement, the closest thing to that would be "we stink." I wonder if there has ever been a game this late in the season between teams with the best record in football, that was a bigger blowout. Doubtful. The last time the Jets lost this bad was 1986, when they were 10-1 and got stomped by the same score by the Dolphins. What are the chances the two biggest blowouts in franchise history happened to teams with awesome records entering the game? With the Jets, I bet it is to be expected. But all is not lost for the Jets. They still are very likely to make the playoffs and they still have a very good team. Perhaps they got a needed dose of humility. If they meet again it will most likely be in New England, but the score will start at 0-0 again.
The Only Team With a Two-Game Divisional Lead?
The Kansas City Chiefs. Despite their many flaws, they have a great running game, a good QB (23-4 INT-TD ratio) and a pretty good defense. They can actually clinch the division with a win in San Diego this week (3 up, 3 to go, tiebreaker in hand). I don't think that will happen, but following that they face St. Louis, Tennessee and Oakland, that should get them to at least 10-6 and a division win.
If the Super Bowl Were Played Today
New England 45 Atlanta 30
The Patriots just look too damn good. The Falcons are doing what they need to do but the last two weeks they barely pulled out the victory and this year's Super Bowl is not in the Georgia Dome.
Josh McDaniels became the third NFL coach to be fired midseason, seems like an unusually high number for the NFL. He won his first 6 games, then lost almost all the rest. He came setting the house on fire jettisoning his two best players, Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall. It was the manifestation of the Belichickian philosophy, "the players don't matter, the system wins championships." And while the Patriots have succeeded with a rotating array of parts (Tom Brady being a crucial constant) it hasn't worked so well for others. Romeo Crennell, Charlie Weis, Eric Mangini and now McDaniels all failed in their first stops as head coaches.
The other big loser in this is Tim Tebow. The one head coach willing to take a chance on him, thinking he could develop into something is no longer a head coach. And with Kyle Orton being pretty decent, it's unlikely Tebow will ever get to be a QB in Denver.
This Picture Was the Best Part of the Game
I guess I am a glutton for punishment because almost every year I go see the Redskins play the Giants in the Meadowlands aka PaulsFriendLands. New Meadowlands, old Meadowlands, same shitty results. This game was fuckin freezing and the Giants dominated it. We couldn't stop the run, we turned it over 6 times and Donovan McNabb of course, couldn't make a play. The Redskins four remaining games are against Tampa Bay, Dallas, Jacksonville and the Giants. If Vegas put odds on this, you'd get even money to wager on 4 more losses in a row.
But At Least It Wasn't This Bad
The Jets went into New England thinking they were about to make a statement, the closest thing to that would be "we stink." I wonder if there has ever been a game this late in the season between teams with the best record in football, that was a bigger blowout. Doubtful. The last time the Jets lost this bad was 1986, when they were 10-1 and got stomped by the same score by the Dolphins. What are the chances the two biggest blowouts in franchise history happened to teams with awesome records entering the game? With the Jets, I bet it is to be expected. But all is not lost for the Jets. They still are very likely to make the playoffs and they still have a very good team. Perhaps they got a needed dose of humility. If they meet again it will most likely be in New England, but the score will start at 0-0 again.
The Only Team With a Two-Game Divisional Lead?
The Kansas City Chiefs. Despite their many flaws, they have a great running game, a good QB (23-4 INT-TD ratio) and a pretty good defense. They can actually clinch the division with a win in San Diego this week (3 up, 3 to go, tiebreaker in hand). I don't think that will happen, but following that they face St. Louis, Tennessee and Oakland, that should get them to at least 10-6 and a division win.
If the Super Bowl Were Played Today
New England 45 Atlanta 30
The Patriots just look too damn good. The Falcons are doing what they need to do but the last two weeks they barely pulled out the victory and this year's Super Bowl is not in the Georgia Dome.