Sick Of Juice

It’s no big secret that the baseball classic film Field Of Dreams is my all time favorite sports movie.

The film eloquently captures faith, family, beauty and baseball, unlike any other sport film to date. It’s remarkable ability to show baseball for its natural beauty, as a great human connection is tremendously insightful. The story centers around Iowa Farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) and his passion for the game of baseball, passed down to him from his father. Kinsella begins to hear voices in his cornfields and takes it upon himself to build a baseball field in the middle of his farm. Shortly after the field is completed the ghosts of the 1919 Chicago White Sox begin playing ball on Kinsella’s farm. The voices continue sending Ray on various journeys until the film’s end, when Kinsella is reunited with the spirit of his father, as they play catch in front of home plate.

“If you build it he will come.”

When Terrance Mann (James Earl Jones) first arrives to Ray Kinsella’s farm in this timeless masterpiece, Mann is in awe to see his ghostly heroes from the past playing on a cornfield baseball diamond in the middle of Iowa.

“Unbelievable” Mann says to Kinsella. “It’s more then that.” Kinsella replies.

“It’s perfect.”

It is perfect! The game, the connections, the continuity, the struggle for victory, it is all perfect.

“Hey Ryan What do you think of the Bonds indictment?”

“Hey Ryan, What’s your take on Roger Clemens?”

“Hey Ryan, how about that Mitchell Report?”

All questions friends and colleagues ask me every day.


I AM DONE! TAPPED OUT!! ! HAVE NOTHING MORE TO GIVE!

I am sick and tired of talking about it, writing about it, taping it, drawing it, eating it, sleeping it, and breathing it. This will be the final article I ever write on the issue of performance enhancing drugs in professional sports.

I have been reporting on the use of drugs in sports since I was a junior in High School in 1998. I wrote an editorial for Highlights News on Mark Mcgwire’s use of adrostendione. The article covered the dangers of steroids in sports, while Mcgwire and Sammy Sosa were both chasing the single season homerun record. A year later I did a cover story for KHS-TV on steroids, interviewing coaches and athletes while once again recognizing the steroid issue in professional sports.

Now ten years later the rest of the media world has joined me in covering the story.

Not only has the rest of the media joined me, now it’s all they talk about! Now we are all being subjected to the 24-hour news media and the steroid era all in the same breath. In its infant phase of human existence, Internet, CNN, ESPN News, and individual sports channels, all give creditability to stories that are nowhere near news worthy. These stories include, but certainly not limited to, 24-hour coverage of the steroid era in baseball, and Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson. (Another sports story completely un-newsworthy.)

The original purpose of my reports almost ten years ago was to shed light on the dangers of drugs in professional sports; and to attempt to hold organizations accountable for players who would take such short cuts. Not to exploit athletes or to repeat the facts until readers and viewers are blue in the face.

Besides, no one cared ten years ago.

In the summer of 2001 I drove better then 2949.15 miles from my mothers house in New York to San Francisco California. Among my many stops during the two-week excursion, was a trip to Pac Bell Park to watch Barry Bonds in his attempt to set an all-new single season homerun record. Bonds was attempting to surpass Mark Mcgwire and Sammy Sosa’s records from just three seasons earlier. On Tuesday night August 14th, I watched from the upper deck on the third base side, as Barry Bonds hit an absolute line drive rocket over the right field wall and into Mccovy Cove for a three run homer. It was his 51st long ball of 2001. (His 51st of 73 in 2001.) I remember thinking as I watched the ball fly out of the park (fastest I have ever seen any ball leave any field of play) that maybe this was too much. Maybe the records and the numbers were all growing irrelevant. Maybe the on field accomplishments weren’t as genuine or authentic as they once were.

Two years later the BALCO scandal rocked San Francisco and the baseball world.




And now there is Roger Clemens.

Mentioned in the Mitchell report as a user of HGH during baseball’s steroid era, Roger has done more this week for 24-hour news networks then the E-Entertainment channel! His story has become a colossal disgusting mess. Congressional hearings, tape-recorded conversations, he said she said verbal lashings, 60 minutes, and press conferences, all just a remote control click away. It's a juicy gossip story, getting great coverage as a result of the winter lull in professional sports. If the Yankees were playing four games against the Red Sox this past week, the Roger Clemens story would have been put on the back burner. If the Cubs and White Sox were about to match up for inter-league play no one would have spent more then two minutes on the Mitchell report.

For me the case is closed.

Baseball now has a drug policy, with very strict consequences. It continues to grow its policies and adapt them to the times. Some players like Andy Pettitte and Jason Giambi have admitted to using steroids and have moved on. Others like Barry Bonds refuse to admit to taking steroids and now face the penalties for perjury.

Either way the issue of performance enhancing drugs in baseball has concluded. The negative spin needs to stop, and athletes needs to get back to playing the game between the base lines.




So when Terrance Mann and Ray Kinsella are standing in awe of the game of baseball on the Field of Dreams. They see only the pure beauty of the game, and the people playing it. Not the fact that Babe Ruth can’t be the greatest homerun hitter of all time because he played during a sports era of segregation. Or that Pete Rose was less of a batting champion because he was a degenerate gambler. Or that Bonds and Mcgwire and Clemens maybe liars and or drug users.

They simply see a perfect game played by perfect people.

It’s the world outside the baselines that is imperfect.

Top Ten List

Just another lazy lonely New Years Eve for me!

No New Years toast, or midnight kiss.

No trip to Times Square, or party of friends.

No Cristal or Scotch or Slow Gin Fizz.

Just my laptop, my Sports Blog, and the ten best Games or Sports Events of 2007.

In chronological order:

1) The Indianapolis Colts Win Super Bowl XLI
With a light steady mist trickling down in Dolphins Stadium, Indianapolis and Chicago did battle in the early weeks of 2007. Billy Joel was done singing, Phil Simms was done analyzing, I was done eating Papa Johns pizza in my Washington Hotel room, and Super Bowl XLI was under way. Manning Vs Grossman, Dungy Vs Smith, Oprah Vs Letterman. Super Bowl XLI was very competitive thru the first two quarters, and at halftime, the Colts lead the Bears 16-14. But the second half was all Indy. MVP Peyton Manning lead his offense to victory scoring 13 more points in the second half winning 29-17.

2) Golden State’s Warfare
I had no idea who Bryon Davis was at the start of the 2007 NBA playoffs. After watching him thru a few quarters I thought of him as basketball’s version of Kirby Puckett. After watching him thru game six of the first round of the finals, I was stunned by him, and in awe of him! Davis, Stephen Jackson and head coach Don Nelson had shocked the NBA world! The Golden State Warriors were the number eight seed, (42-40 record) and the final team to make the 2007 post season, playing against Mark Cuban’s model franchise. The Dallas Mavericks, who were the NBA’s best team (67-15). This David Vs Goliath match up was suppose to be a laugher. But then Golden State won games three and four at home following a spilt in Dallas in games one and two. Up three games to two Golden State came back home for game six and hammered the Mavericks 111-86. Making it the greatest upset in 2007!

3) Lord Arthur’s Ducks
I can still see the brothers Scott and Rob Niedermayer skating around the ice in Anaheim California’s Honda Center with the Stanley Cup raised above both of their heads. In just five games of the 2007 Stanley Cup final, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks defeated the Ottawa Senators. It hardly compared to the seven game final from the year prior, which I had witnessed first hand. But none-the-less the Carolina Hurricanes passed the Stanley Cup on to The Mighty Ducks.

4) Old West over King Lebron
Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and of course Tim Duncan paved the way for the San Antonio Spurs to sweep Lebron James, and the Cleveland Cavilers in the 2007 NBA Finals. Although games one thru three were blowouts, Cleveland was desperately trying stave off defeat in game four. With a 81-79 Spurs lead in the closing seconds, Ginobili killed the clock before being fouled. He made both of his free throws and the Spurs completed the sweep. Players celebrated, fans went wild, and Eva Longoria mobbed Tony Parker. That may very well be my favorite sports moment of 2007. I am a big Eva fan.

5) Modern Day Homerun Proprietor
On Tuesday August 7th while playing at home against the Washington Nationals, Barry Bonds stepped up to the plate at AT&T Park. What he did next was history. For the 756th time in his career Bonds had hit a homerun. Bonds past the all time homerun record, held by Hank Aaron, to become baseballs new all time homerun king. The ball was hit into the right centerfield bleachers and set 43,154 Giant fans into a frenzy. Fireworks lit up the San Francisco night, and confetti poured town from the upper deck. His family and teammates mobbed Bonds at home plate. Baseball’s most prestigious record had its new chapter. Despite my well-documented feelings on Bonds, Major League Baseball has recognized Barry's record and holds it to be true.

6) Tiger’s Decree
Winner of the Fed Ex Cup, Woods won his first PGA event of 2007 (Torre Pines) and his last (East Lake). There were also a few in-between! Tiger continued to solidify his place as the best golfer in the games history in 2007. Now I have received lots of criticism for my less then professional obsession into Tiger’s athleticism. And so, in my attempt to be a nonbiased impartial blogger, I will write nothing further of the tremendous accomplishments of Woods in 2007.

7) Rocky Mountain High
In arguably the greatest streak of games ever won by an organization, the 2007 Colorado Rockies won 28 of their final 29 games to capture the National League Pennant. From September 16th until October 24th the Rockies lost only one single game. (A regular season loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.) From September 16 up to the World Series, Colorado won 20 of 21 regular season games, a one game playoff in extra innings against the San Diego Padres, a sweep in the Division Series of the Philadelphia Phillies, and a sweep in the Championship series of the rival Diamondbacks. Lead by the calm and witty Clint Hurdle the Rockies captured baseball fans everywhere and made them believers of the Denver dream. Sadly for Rockies fans (and Red Sox haters) the dream ended when the World Series began. Colorado was no match for Boston and lost the series in four games. However the remarkable streak of victories couldn’t be out done by any other baseball story in 2007.

8) The New Malevolent Empire
Lead by the table setters Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, and followed by power producers David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, the Boston Red Sox bashed their way to another World Series title. In four World Series games Boston out scored Colorado 29-10. The Sox made quick and easy work of the Rockies. By a final of 13-1 in game number one, it was clear that Boston would over match the Rockies. Josh Beckett continued his post-season dominance in game one. The first game told the tale. And the book was easily judged by the cover. Boston won its second Championship in four years. The only consolation I take from the whole miserable experience as a Red Sox hater, is that the Sox won it all on the road away from Fenway Park. WOOP-DEE-DOOO!!!

9) Celtic Pride
In the mid summer of 2007 the Boston Celtics acquired Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves. The nine-player deal solidified Boston’s place among the top teams in the NBA's Eastern Conference going into the start of the season. As I type Boston is the best team in the NBA with an astonishing 26-3 record. In just under a third of a season, the Celtis have already surpassed their total win record from a year ago. Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett have almost insured Boston it's first NBA title since the Larry Bird era.

10) Paragon Patriots
With a victory over the New York Giants this past Saturday night, the New England Patriots have completed a perfect season, and has become the first team to ever go 16-0 in the regular season. However this sports story remains incomplete with the dawn of the New Year. Now as 2008 commences, the Patriots will start where I began this blog, trying to win the Super Bowl to become the first big sports story of 2008.

Eli And Big Blue, Consistently Inconsistent

Nope

Not Brett Farve’s MVP season in his 38-year-old body.

Not Quarterback Tony Romo with his gorgeous Hollywood hottie.

(Jessica Simpson)

Not the New England Patriots who remain the very best.

Not the rejuvenated Chargers of the AFC west.

Not spy-gate, or Romeo, Buffalo, or Bill.

Or the Steelers streaky play, to go with the winter chill.

Not Petrino or Peyton, Vikings or Vick.

Or Monday Night Football on Christmas Eve with old Saint Nick.

No, the most amazing NFL story that I have found,

is how the 2007 New York Giants are post season bound.

As some of you may know, I frequently visit my family back home in New York. At my mother’s house, friends, family and I have worked over the years to make my mother’s basement into a semi finished den / living room area. Known affectionately as the “Burger Palace”, the den area includes a couch, two recliners, a coffee table, bar, sound system, jumbo-torn and every movie and sports poster I’ve ever owned.

One of my favorite past-times is to make my way down to the basement for spurts of time on Sundays to watch NFL games on the big screen. This past Sunday, I told my sister I was headed down to the Burger Palace to see how the dull-witted Eli Manning and the New York Giants were doing.

I have been very critical of Eli Manning this season to say the very least. My sister, who knows nothing of football, knows Eli is a poor Quarterback simply because of all my cursing and swearing. It was a little before nine o’clock and I figured the Giants / Redskins game was somewhere near the end of the first quarter. As I sat down in my recliner with a can of diet Pepsi in hand, I turned my attention to the screen as I began listening to Al and John doing play by play. The very first play I witnessed was the Giants lined up on offense while Eli was calling for the ball. Manning pulled his arm back as he began to look over his passing options. As he scrambled slightly to his right, he lost control of the ball and fumbled it to the ground. The Washington Redskins recovered and sent their offense onto the field. I got up from my recliner instantly disgusted with the game. I went back upstairs, and reported the news to my sister. (She must think I am a broken record.)

What is amazing to me is that the Giants have played lackluster football all season. Plays like the first one I witnessed Sunday night are commonplace. Yet if Big Blue wins this Sunday or next Sunday (yeah right) they will clinch a 2007-2008-playoff birth.

Eli Manning had 34 incomplete passes last Sunday. He already has 17 interceptions this season, to go with a 54% passing percentage. Eli has been consistently inconsistent in his professional career with the Giants. I declare with great certainty now that Eli will never be a superstar quarterback, and will never escape the shadow of his big brother.

Then there is Jeremy Shockey, the Giant Tight End who broke his leg Sunday, and is out for the season. Plexico Burress New York’s Wide Receiver has been playing all season with an injured right ankle. And this Giant team by and large, can’t seem to get it together when playing home games.

No wonder Giants fans have been hushed this season!

Will the Giants make the post season despite an awful Quarterback, key players hurt, and more overall inconsistency then George W. Bush on September Eleventh?

Surprisingly I think they will.

I think they beat the Bills in Buffalo this Sunday, and then they go to Tampa and play the Buccaneers. However after 60 minutes of play in the first round of the NFL postseason, the Giants will be making off-season vacation plans.

Bonds On Trail, Clink Time To Follow

And Alas Barry Bonds and I have something in common.

Thru the week of October 21, 2007, while in the golden city I had been jogging from my hotel at Compton Place to Mccovy Cove and AT&T Park at the San Francisco bay. There at the bay are five bar fenced gates that look directly into the park from the right field foul line toward center field. From these gates one can look directly into the chain link fence that is the right field wall. The green grass, dirt infield, pitchers mound, and stands, can all be seen thru these gates. The sidewalk (opened to the public) is about twenty feet wide. One side looks into the park, while the other side looks directly into the bay. Every San Francisco night I ran down to these five fences and looked thru them onto at the field within. I would imagine first that I was playing right field, getting myself into a crouching position. With sweat pouring down my face, Paul O’Neill would often come to my mind, the Yankees right field warrior.

What I wouldn’t do to be just inside these fences, just twenty little old feet closer.

Then I would imagine I was getting a lead off first base. Pretending that I was standing 239 feet closer then I actually was. I wouldn’t get picked off is what I told myself. I wouldn’t be like Matt Holliday, who I had seen getting picked off earlier in the evening of game 2 of the 2007 World Series.

Man I wish I could play the game!

I wish I could swing a bat, or throw a ball!

I wish I didn’t get nervous just getting out of bed, let alone all the nervous energy I would feel if I were a major league ball player. Stepping into a big league batters box with 56,000 people watching my every step is so unfathomable to me that my stomach turns just thinking about it. Putting all talent aside or prospect of talent for that matter, I was nervous as a young man just playing little league and Babe Ruth. It robbed me from ever really judging my potential, but also made me realize that playing baseball was not to be my path in my life’s journey.

Then there is Barry Bonds.

The 43-year-old major league baseball veteran, holds the tainted record of most life-time homeruns hit by a major league baseball player. Tainted because of his use of performance enhancing drugs. By his own admission Barry has testified to using the Cream and the Clear two forms of an anabolic steroid. But the truth is Barry has used far greater performance enhancing drugs and has just never owned up to it.

Until today.

Bonds is due today in federal court in San Francisco for perjury charges. It is expected that the federal prosecution has enough evidence that Barry has lied about taking performance enhancing drugs to put Bonds in prison for up to 30 years.
It all dates back to 2003, when Bonds and five other major league players testified before a Federal Grand Jury. They were questioned about their involvement in the seizure of the Balco Laboratories and the arrest of its owner Victor Conte. The six players were granted total immunity for their honest testimony. (Tell the complete and total truth about Balco and you’re free!) Five players told the complete truth, but not Bonds. Barry denied any involvement in Balco, and denied ever knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.

Now he faces the music.

Bonds and his defense team plan on fighting the charges. However its common legal knowledge that federal prosecutors don’t file perjury charges unless they are 99.9% positive they can get a guilty verdict from a jury. And there is plenty of evidence out there to convict Bonds.

Now most people will defend Bonds. "Leave him alone!" "All baseball players use drugs, so why single Bonds out. Why make him the poster boy of the steroid era?" "They are all millionaire cry baby cheater, but not criminals." "It's strictly a racial thing! Bonds broke the biggest record in baseball, and some people just don’t like it." These are all quotes I have heard on the radio, work place, and in the news in recent months, and they are all irrelevant.

What Bonds is being charged with, and what I have had a problem with from day one, is his arrogance, pride, disrespect and defiance for the game of baseball any more importantly the countries judicial system.

Bond lied to a Federal Grand Jury, and no one is above that!!!

This past week Barry said to reporters that he still wants to play in 2008. He has been quoted as saying he felt unappreciated for all he had done for the Giants and the city of San Francisco, and has asked his agent to find him a deal somewhere in baseball. However with a perjury indictment, and possible prison time lingering, no team in baseball will give Bonds a deal. It’s safe to say Barry’s time within the game of baseball has come to an end.

All baseball fans worship their heros, and despise their villains with great passion. We find even the subtlest similarities with our heros, and we do whatever possible to distance our own characteristics from our villains.

We wear the same shirts and hats as those we admire and curse and judge those we dislike. Even I, at 27-years-old, think of Paul O’Neill and Matt Holliday while jogging around the city of San Francisco.

Barry has always been a player whom I hate. His flat out arrogance his defiance of the game disgusts me. He is one of the great examples of a guy whom I distance myself from. Which leads me back to my initial point of this article, the common link between Bonds and myself.

Barry’s common link to me is that for almost opposite reasons, we are both locked out of AT&T Park in San Francisco. However the bars that lock me out of the park do not lock me out of choices and experiences throughout the rest of the world. In Bond's case, the bars that he will soon be locked behind will be holding him in a 6x6x6 foot jail cell.

Or at least I hope.

Santana Or Baby Bombers?

I want Johan Santana in Yankee Pinstripes for Christmas this year!

The Minnesota Twins left-handed ace Johan Santana is the hottest available pitcher on the trade market this off-season. Johan has developed into arguably the best pitcher in the American League and is most certainly among the top ten. In eight major league seasons Santana has 93 career wins. In each of the last four years Johan has over 200 strikeouts in over 200 innings pitched. His lifetime ERA is 3.22, which is a great triumph in modern day American League baseball. He is the ace of the Twins staff, the most crucial member of the Minnesota pitching rotation.

I have a photograph that hangs on the backside of my apartment’s front door. The photograph is of New York Yankees Phil Hughes, Robinson Cano, Joba Chamberlain, and Melky Cabrera. They are all gathered in the dugout of Tropicana field in Tampa Florida, wearing thier gray road Jerseys as they pose. Chamberlain is crouched forward, while squatting on the backrest of the dugout bench. Cabrera stands to Joba’s right with a bat hanging like a cross behind is neck, while both or his hands wrap around each end of the lumber. On Joba’s left are Cano and Huges. Cano holds a bat similar to Melky while Hughes is smiling and looking at the camera. The photograph is titled “Baby Bombers”. I often stare at the photo while thinking about pending Yankee games in seasons to come. With great hope and excitement, future Yankee victories race through my mind when thinking about these four special rookies.

Yet over the last several weeks I have been waking up and dreading my daily routine of checking the New York newspapers. Frightened that I will turn on my computer to read of how one (or more) of my “Baby Bombers” has been traded to Minnesota. Dreading that the Yankees will have abandoned their principals and compromised the future in an effort to get John Santana from the Twins. Now although the result of such a move will accomplish the goal from my very first sentence of this blog, it would still greatly upset me!

Upset me because parting with tomorrow’s prospects for a chance at winning today is an uncertain variable. Of course if Santana leads the 2008 Yankees to the World Series, then all the “Baby Bombers” in the world can play in Minneapolis for all I care. However if next season Phil Hughes or Jaba Chamberlain win 23 games with the Twins, while Johan Santana rehabs in August from the Yankees disabled list, while the Red Sox are in first place, well then all hell will have broken lose in the Bronx.

Of course in a perfect world Cano would be at second base, Hughes and Chamberlain would be in the starting rotation, Cabrera would be navigating centerfield, and Johan Santana would be the ace of the Yankees staff. But the more I read, and the more both teams report, that possibility 100% unattainable. This leaves me pondering an age-old question as a Yankee fanatic.

How can I have my cake and eat it too?

I can’t! The Yankees organization can’t! And the millions of other Yankees fans around the world can’t either. The Minnesota Twins have made it abundantly clear that they will not, under any conditions trade Santana to New York without a package that would include one of the four “Baby Bombers”. Under normal circumstances this would immediately end talks involving the Yankees. However the Boston Red Sox have complicated those normal circumstances this week.

The Red Sox have also entered talks with the Twins to acquire Santana. This has forced Hank Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman (Yankee Owner and General Manager) to discuss trading players who would normally be off limits. In my opinion, and probably the opinion of most Yankees insiders, the Yankee brass would do anything to keep Santana from becoming a Red Sox. If that means abandoning prospects and trading away the future, they will. The only silver lining for the Yankees is that the Twins asking price from Boston is equally steep.

How will it all play out at Baseball’s winter meetings (where most trades are discussed) next week? No one can be certain. I personally could see any one of three possibilities happening. I could see Santana remaining as a Twin, I could see him as a Red Sox, and I could see him in Pinstripes.

Only one thing do I know for sure.

If a trade does occur, and the Yankees land Santana, then the Poster on my front door is useless!

Sean Taylor 1983-2007

Imagine you’re the defensive safety for the Washington Redskins.

Your day is winding down and you’re home resting your sprained knee. You’re biding your time. Healing your body. Mentally preparing for your next opportunity to walk thru the tunnel of an NFL stadium for a big game. You’re thinking of running, hitting and catching. Thinking of all the meaningful games with playoff implications remaining this season. As you go crawl into bed and slip under your covers, your thoughts begin to drift. You think about your parents, your girlfriend, to your teammates, old friends, where you’re going, where you’re coming from.

Most of all you think about your daughter.

You fall asleep.

Suddenly you’re startled by a noise you hear from within your home. You spring up from your bed arming yourself as you begin to prospect. You arrive at your bedroom door and see an intruder. Before you can comprehend what is happening a bullet has entered you leg above your knee. You suddenly begin to lose blood. You try to cover your wound. You fall to the floor. You hear screams; see lights come on around you. You’re trying to wrap something, anything around your wound to stop the bleeding. Your trying to get your self out of harms way, you’re trying to protect your family. What ever you can do to get the intruder out of your home, is imperative. But most of all you’re just trying to make sense out of everything that has just happened.

You close your eyes.

You pass out.

Imagine the horrifying final moments of Sean Taylor’s life.

Sean Taylor was the 24-year-old defensive safety for the Washington Redskins. In his fourth year in the NFL, Sean’s potential for excellence in game of football was immeasurable. A graduate of the University of Miami, he was drafted by the Redskins as the fifth overall pick in the 2004 draft. Early Monday morning, an armed intruder entered Sean’s home firing two shots. The first shot missed its target, but the second hit a major artery in Taylor’s leg. The loss of blood caused Taylor to enter a coma, and at 5:30am (before sunrise) on Tuesday November 27, Sean Taylor passed away.

For the last 48 hours, every paper I have read, radio show I have listened to, and television program I have watched has reported the exact same thing, “Sean was a terrific player; a young man with a troubled past, but someone who had recently matured as a result of fatherhood”. His teammates coaches and fans all thought the world of him. He will be missed most of all on the field and in the locker room where he was a key figure.

It happens all too often in the NFL. For me personally this incident is the last stop.

Common are the stories of player drug charges, DWI’s, gang related incidences, violence, theft, robbery, and murder. The NFL’s enormous popularity prevents these stories from holding the headlines for too long. With great efficiency and little effort these issues are swept under the rug, and the count down to Super Bowl XLII always takes center stage.

Now I am in no way rushing to conclusions, or placing blame, or choosing sides. I am not trying to mix stories, or focus on the negative. However a football player has been murdered and that seems to be to be a little more important then a game.

Sean Taylor is survived by his 18-month-old daughter Jackie Taylor.

Sean Taylor 1983-2007

2007 MLB Awards

The 2007 Major League Baseball awards week is about to kick off. Monday MLB will announce the Rookie Of The Year Award in both Leagues, Tuesday will be the AL Cy Young Award, Wednesday will be the Managers of the Year, Thursday NL Cy Young, and then next week, just before the Holiday the MVP awards will be announced.


It's the time of year when baseball writer’s get together and critique, evaluate and assess baseball’s most covenanted possession, its numbers. These writing men and women of suits and laptops judge players on their already accomplished feats. Those men and women consistently looking awkward on the baseball diamond before and after the game, find their niche within the pastime and attribute praise to it.

(I must remember jealousy will get me nowhere!)


Any who, 2007 looks to be pretty cut and dry when it comes to handing out the games most sought after awards. I doubt there will be any big surprises over the next two weeks. Allow me to do some predicting, so I can be wrong as always.


AL Rookie- Dustin Pedroia
Red Sox Nation’s new lover! Especially now that reports have been released that Pedroia played his final games of the season with a broken wrist. He already had the reputation of a pesky pain in the rear for opposing pitchers, but now he is a New England hero too! Hitting lead off down the stretch for Boston, Dustin was as much a part of the Sox second World Series title in four years as anyone.


NL Rookie- Troy Tulowitzki
Already being compared to Cal Ripken Jr., Troy is heavily favored to bring Colorado only its second ROY award in team history. Troy has tremendous range at shortstop, and committed only 11 errors in 155 games this season. In addition to his remarkable play at short, Troy handled the bat pretty well too. He hit .291 with 24 Homers and 99 RBIs. Tulowitzki kept himself busy too whenever striking out in a game. Troy would work out in the clubhouse between innings as punishment for not putting the ball in play. With tremendous offensive numbers for a National League shortstop in addition to great defense and a positive work ethic, Troy is the favorite to win the award in a few short hours from when I am typing this.


AL Cy Young- Josh Beckett
This is one of the few awards that could surprise me, but I doubt it will. Voting the Cy Young is allegedly done before the post season. However no one had a better season or post season then that of Red Sox Ace Josh Beckett. The games only 20 win starter, Josh won his 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th when it counted the most, in October. His 3.27 ERA in the American League wasn’t too shabby either. C.C. Sabathia of the Cleveland Indians could give Josh a little voting competition for the Award, but at the end of the day Tuesday, Josh will have his first career Cy Young.


AL Manager- Terry Francona
It isn’t often that the winning manager of the World Series wins the Manager Of The Year award. In fact it has only happened for three managers in the last ten years. (Ozzie Gullien, Jim Leyland, Jack Mckeon) However no other manager has done a better job in the American League in 2007. With a crazy mix of players, Terry keeps is clubhouse fun, and his attitude positive each and every day, in the second most difficult market in all of baseball.


NL Manager- Clint Hurdle
This is the one I am sure of! How could Clint not win the award based on what he has accomplished this season in Denver. In this, Clint’s sixth season in Colorado, he is the first Rockies manager to win 90 games. Clint and the Rockies had not even finished within ten games of .500 in each of the last five years. Leading a team that is 25th in all of baseball in overall salary, Hurdle could have given up years ago, and no one would have though the lesser of him. Yet this September something finally clicked. Hovering around .500 all year, Hurdle’s team played all the way into the Fall Classic by winning 22 of their last 23 in the regular season games. With great pose, and never say die attitude, Hurdle is the prime candidate in the NL for Manager Of The Year Honors.


NL Cy Young- Jake Peavy
Leading the National League in wins and in ERA this is the favorite to win the Cy Young. Finishing with 19 victories it’s ironic that his 20th win would have sent his team to the post season. Regardless his inadequacy, his season should not be scrutinized because of one poor game. Without Peavy, the Padres would have fallen well short of the Post Season, instead of only one game short. He is a leader of the Padres rotation and team itself. I just hope the Yankees can trade for him, and not have to give up any prospects!


AL MVP -Alex Rodriguez
Despite his cries of, “LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!” during game four of the World Series, and his incredible lack of intelligence off the field, his arrogance, greed and disrespect, his offensive numbers in 2007 are off the charts! Evaluating only his endeavors between the base lines, A-Rod had a monster offensive season. He is the favorite for the MVP by a country mile! But I simply can’t write another decent thing about the money grubbing careless jock! His conduct off the field robs him of his true potential.


NL MVP- Jimmy Rollins
This is another tough prediction! I could see Matt Holliday beating Rollins out for NL MVP. But if he does, it is wrong! After all Justin Morneu beat out Derek Jeter last season in the same category, and that was wrong then too! Rollins and Holliday have even numbers, and there importance to their respective teams is equal. But the major variation can be found in Rollins’s near flawless defense at the third most important defensive position in the field. Jimmy Hit .296 with 30 homers and 94 RBIs as a lead off hitter! But the most amazing stat is only 11 errors in all 162 games for the Phillies this year! Rollins played flawless defense and hit for power at the top of the batting order in each and every game for the Phillies this year!


Well that is my story and those are my picks! I am no different then every other die-hard baseball fan in November. Struggling for any kind of worthy baseball news!

For the next two weeks, the MLB Awards are the next best thing to baseball itself.