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Sports

Collapse in Boston

Boston Herald: “The Red Sox had a chance to force a one-game playoff in Tampa today regardless of the Rays’ fireworks, but they managed to screw that up in appropriately pitiful fashion, blowing a 3-2 lead in the ninth, in part because shortstop Marco Scutaro inexplicably stopped running a la Luis Aparicio in 1972, and then with finality when closer Jonathan Papelbon [stats] couldn’t protect a 3-2 lead in the ninth.”

Washington Post: “These days, there’s no boatman in a dark cowl to take you over to the other side where the souls who wail for eternity are found. They’ve got an elevator now. Just push the “down” button. Don’t worry; you can’t go too low. Pick any rung. Mr. Dante has fine punishments arranged at every level. New rules: No more eternal damnation. They let you out next opening day to try again. Excuses, fine, they’re permitted, too. But for now: Go to hell.”

In their final month of baseball the Boston Red Sox went 7-20, and failed to make the playoffs. Unbelievable. At one point they looked unbeatable, absolutely unbeatable, then this.

I’m glad I’m not a Red Sox fan.

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Sports

The BCS needs a March Madness

SI.com: “NEWARK — Such is the state of this NCAA tournament, that I could wake up Friday morning in New Orleans thinking there were strong odds Houston’s Final Four would include two No. 1s (Ohio State and Kansas) and a No. 2 (Florida) … and then be in Newark on Sunday night, watching No. 4 Kentucky clinch the last spot — alongside No. 3 UConn, with No. 8 Butler and No. 11 VCU filling out the other half. I was stunned to witness the Bulldogs’ second straight Final Four-clinching win, and am still stunned when I see the teams printed on this bracket t-shirt.”

The BCS still believes its system is flawless. Witness the NCAA National Basketball Championship Tournament, it’s not perfect, but it’s still better than anything the College Football boys have put together.

Tournaments can be unpredictable, it’s part of what makes sports beautiful. Is it doable in the football world? Yes, I believe it is. Can you have the Big Four traditional bowl games? Yes, I believe you can. Does the BCS want to give up all that money? No, there in lies the problem. The game is driven by money. The kids don’t make a dime, but the Universities and their affiliates certainly do. Until that problem can be addressed the BCS will remain a very flawed system that pits two supposed greats against each other. Until that problem is addressed we’ll never know who the true National Champion is in NCAA Football. I’m pulling for Mark Cuban. I hope he turns College Football on its ear.

As for NCAA Basketball, it’ll be as clear as it can be in two more games.

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Football Sports

Go Mark!

ESPN: “DALLAS — After two failed bids to buy a Major League Baseball team, billionaire Mark Cuban is seriously considering trying to use his money to create a playoff alternative to college football’s Bowl Championship Series”

I hope the man is able to pull this off. College Football needs a playoff system, period.

Come to think of it, it’s about time for my yearly BCS rant, complete with playoff brackets.

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Sports

BCS Shocker

ESPN: “RENO, Nev. — Two missed kicks, and Boise State went from being the darling of BCS busters everywhere to just another team looking for a bowl game”

Darn. I had high hopes for Boise State this year. Living in the San Joaquin Valley is a bit frustrating when it comes to football. We have Fresno State, that’s it, and they don’t know how to win the WAC. At least the WAC had a bright shining star in Boise State. Oh well, now we pull for Oregon out of the PAC-10. Go Ducks!

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Sports

Giants

NY Times: “It was their first championship in 56 years, and their first as a San Francisco team. And team they were — not a consortium of superstars, but a smooth blend of rising stars and nonstars, of rejects and never-beens, modestly compensated by Yankees and Red Sox standards, but hard-working and well-anchored by a staff of awesome starting pitchers, all in their 20s.”

The Giants are proof you don’t need the NY Yankees roster of super stars to win a World Series. A bunch of work-a-day guys. I love that, and wish we had more of that in today’s professional sports.

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Sports

NFL to Players, don’t hit

Sports Illustrated: “What they’re trying to say – ‘We’re protecting the integrity’ – no, you’re not,” Bears cornerback Charles Tillman said. “It’s ruining the integrity. It’s not even football anymore. We should just go out there and play two-hand touch Sunday if we can’t make contact.”

One weekend, one. That’s all it took for the Pansy of an NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, to continue the Tom Bradyfication of professional football. Now the players can’t hit people a certain way. Have you ever played football? Well, I have, and I can assure you it IS NOT a contact sport, ballroom dancing is a contact sport, basketball is a contact sport, football is a collision sport, and if you can’t handle the physicality of the sport you should get out. Two of the three hits on Sunday were pretty serious, and should be penalized, and the players fined. The third however, I don’t know about that. I’m talking about the hit to DeSean Jackson of the Philadelphia Eagles. Was the hit violent? Yes, it was. Was it illegal, no, I don’t believe so. While the tacklers head was down he was clearly offset. He made contact with his right shoulder into the chest of DeSean Jackson. Do you think his head isn’t going to eventually collide with something? Sure it is. Ok, ok, so he was defenseless. I’ll agree with that, but you shouldn’t fine Dunta Robinson. He’s a football player. You’re taught at a young age to knock the snot bubbles out of people, do you think a player can just turn that off? No.

Pretty soon they will be playing flag football, and who wants to watch that? I certainly don’t. I like American Football. It’s a great sport. Hits like this are rare, and are going to happen, but you can’t stop it. Not even with rule changes.

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Sports

The Diesel a Celtic

Boston Celtics LogoYahoo! Sports: “Actually, he’s not hiding at all. He’s not flying low to the ground and he’s not slumming. Short of zooming back to Los Angeles (hard to do on a burned bridge) or Miami (ditto), he’s signed with the most storied franchise this league has. One of the more popular, one of the most prominent and one of two that you last saw playing official hoops a month and a half ago. The Celtics.”

I love Shaq! Always have, probably always will. I hope Boston can pull off another championship, it would be nice to see the Big Aristotle win another ring, then ride off into the sunset.

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Sports

The Championship of Me

Yahoo! Sports: “The Championship of Me comes crashing into a primetime cable infomercial that LeBron James(notes) and his cronies have been working to make happen for months, a slow, cynical churning of manufactured drama that sports has never witnessed. As historic monuments go, this is the Rushmore of basketball hubris and narcissism. The vacuous star for our vacuous times. All about ‘Bron and all about nothing.”

I used to think this guy was all right. Now, now I think he’s pathetic.